Supernatural or Sci-Fi?
by Madame Kiksters
Summary: Lance the merman, begrudging merfolk representative, is to attend the centennial alien convention. There he meets the friendly Hawaiian demigod Hunk, his Atlantean friend Pidge, the friendly ghost Shiro, and a surly Galra named Keith.
1. Convention Arc Pt1

There were few times in Lance's life when he was truly unhappy. The first time, was when he went to spend a few weeks with his friend from Atlantis when he was ten whale migrations old. Sure, it had been fun for the first few days. But after that he began to miss his family. His misery continued to increase until, one night, he swam all the back to the warmer waters of his home. After a scolding from his mother, he was made to return the next day and apologize for his disappearance. His only solace, at the time, was that he then got to go home and be happy again.

The second time, he had been forced to go on land for a week-long study trip in his humanities class. There he'd learned that all of those scary human stories from his childhood were true. He still felt ill when he thought of the humans' consumption of merfolk flesh. _Who would want to eat them?_ _Did they eat the human looking half as well?_ These were questions Lance wasn't sure he wanted answered.

The most recent time, was shortly after Lance's twentieth whale migration. The mer-council pulled one of his scales from the selection pool. Every merfolk over the age of twenty whale migrations (or years as he'd found out in his humanities study) was required to remove one of their scales and add them to the selection pool. The pool was used to decide who would be attending the centennial alien convention. The merfolk sent a representative to update the status of their home planet every time the convention was held.

In summary, Lance was _not_ happy.

"I don't even get _why_ our home planet is so important. We've been so mutated during our time on Earth that we're hardly the same species!" Lance pouted as he scrubbed his skin with the fine sand that he had traded at the gathering.

"Lance, I understand that you don't want to go." His mother began before she was interrupted by his youngest brother.

"I don't! You're so lucky that you get to leave this place for a while."

Lance rolled his eyes before he focused his attention on scrubbing his arms and torso. The gills on his neck flared and a large stream of bubbles escaped as he huffed in exasperation.

His mother shooed her youngest son away before she approached her eldest. She placed a gentle, yet firm, hand on his cheek. When he turned his face towards her reluctantly, she gave him a goofy smile that was full of sharp, serrated teeth.

Lance returned the gesture before they laughed together. Lance leaned forward and wrapped his arms around his mother's torso. For a moment, he let his weakness show as he pitifully whispered, "Don't make me go."

He felt his mother's clawed hand rest on his back to comfort him and he tightened his hold.

"What are you, an octopus? Let go before you damage my organs." His mother ordered playfully.

He held on for a moment longer before he let go and rubbed the back of his head. His short, brown hair slid through his fingers. He apologized sheepishly.

"Lance… I think this will be good for you. You haven't spent longer than a week away from your school in your entire life. And don't think I can't see the girls you chase after. It's like you have a knack for finding one who isn't the slightest bit interested in you."

"But I-" his mother held up her hand to stop him.

"I want you to be happy, more than anything. If you want to spend your entire life with us while your younger siblings all grow up and move off to find life partners, so be it." Lance lowered his gaze to the sea floor as his mother continued. "But can you at least _try_ and use this as an opportunity to see what lies beyond this school and realize there's more out there?"

Lance nodded solemnly and mumbled his reply.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you?", his mother chided playfully.

Lance smiled crookedly as he gave a short laugh, "I said _fine_."

Lance had prepared for his journey thoroughly. He had all the essentials: his supply of fine sands for exfoliating his skin, his kelp oils that moisturized his skin overnight, his coral rollers that kept his hair from floating into his face at night (he'd gotten them for his eighteenth whale migration), and a set of swim trunks that he would change into when he got close to land.

His school bid him farewell, after his nineteen siblings bid him goodbye with words of encouragement (or words of caution from the ones who'd recently studied humanities), he bid his parents goodbye. His father gave him a set of small white pebbles in an orange prescription bottle that had been collected from a garbage dump site by traders. They were to be used to help prevent the transformation that would occur if he submerged his body in water.

Lance thanked him with a fierce hug. His father patted his back and tightened his hold before he released his captive.

His mother swam up to him last, "Remember, Lance." She instructed. Lance nodded before his mother gathered him up in her arms. "Be safe." She whispered.

"I will."

They held each other for a moment longer before his mother pulled away.

Lance swam past his school as they gathered at the entrance of their kelp bed. "I'll miss you guys!" he called with a wave.

" _Sure_ you will." He heard one of his younger siblings say before they cried out in pain.

His slightly younger than him sister's, "We'll miss you too!" was interlaced with the younger sibling's question of, "What'd you _hit_ me for?"

Lance chuckled merrily as he swam further away.

This was it. He'd been swimming for a few days now. He'd traveled along the coast to reach the appropriate shore closest to the convention's location to minimize his contact with humans. With a sigh of bubbles from his gills, Lance ingested one of the pebbles. He felt his tail split into two for the first time since he was sixteen, it was just as unpleasant a sensation as before.

He kicked around his new limbs for a moment as he learned to control his separate "tails". When he'd righted himself, he pulled on the swim trunks he'd brought with him and agonizingly _slowly_ made his way to shore.

When he was in shallow enough water, he began to use his hands to go further since kicking his new legs would result in his feet smacking painfully on the shell covered sand close to shore.

"How do humans _do_ this?" he complained as he felt the muscles of his legs pulse from the effort of swimming.

He pulled himself on land and admired the night sky. As a member of the merfolk, he had no reason to venture close enough to the surface of the ocean to see the sky. There were only a few lights visible, they could have been stars or those satellites the humans seemed so fond of. There was an almost _film_ of yellow over the black of the night sky.

It was nice. Different from the view he typically received living so deep in the ocean that no human could ever reach them. The heat from the magma that would bubble from under the earth's crust kept the water a nice, warm temperature.

The wind was an unfamiliar concept, as well, and was decidedly _not_ a nice, warm temperature.

After he'd first exited the water, his body systems switched functions so that he could breathe through his nose and mouth, but his gills were still quite visible. Lance rested there shivering in his swim trunks before he began to pull himself up. He was a bit shaky on his legs and, after a few minutes, he was dry enough that his gills sealed shut enough to become invisible.

He took a few experimental steps and was grateful that there were no humans around. He stumbled for a few minutes trying to get his bearings before he heard a voice call out to him.

"You all right down there?"

Lance looked up in a panic to watch as a large man with dark skin and black hair jogged over to him. The stranger's yellow color scheme did nothing to quell Lance's uneasiness.

"I-" Lance coughed, "I'm fine! You don't need to worry!"

The stranger slowed and approached more carefully. "Are you drunk?"

 _Drunk_? Lance wasn't too sure what that had to do with anything. "No?"

"Is that a question?"

"Look, I said I was fine. Now, leave me alone." Lance snapped as he edged further away from the human.

The man watched his unease before, "You a mermaid?"

Lance felt his body break out into a cold sweat. "What?" his voice cracked.

"Oh! No no no. It's okay!" The stranger took a step back, "You must be here for the convention." He decided before he held out a hand. "Name's Hunk! Secret love-child of the Hawaiian god, Lono and human woman, Kaikilani." He finished with a flourish, something dark passed over his face at the mention of his parents, before his cheery demeanor returned with full force.

 _It's okay._ Lance reassured himself as he reached out with his clawed hand and accepted Hunk's massive one. When he pulled his hand back he asked solemnly, "You've never partaken of the flesh of my kin, have you?"

"Why would I do that? I haven't aged a day since my eighteenth birthday!" Hunk replied good-naturedly with his arms spread wide for emphasis.

"And just how old are you?"

Hunk shrugged, "I stopped counting a _long_ time ago." He looked up in thought, "I was born in the late sixteenth century… so." He stretched the word and left his sentence hanging there.

Realizing that Hunk was finished speaking, Lance breathed a sigh of relief.

"Do you need some help? Getting to the convention's hotel?" Hunk clarified.

Lance waved him off, "No, no. It's better if I do it myself." He continued to stumble around the beach before he was able to manage confident strides. Hunk watched him the entire time and, unbeknownst to Lance, was being reminded of a young child taking their first steps and feeling a wave of protectiveness.

"All right. I think I'm ready." Lance announced. The two made their way to the large building.

During the merfolk's humanities course, their stay on land is always held at the hotel the convention takes place at. The land is always owned by a "supernatural" creature in order to prevent any confusion. The merfolk weren't the only ones who isolated themselves from humans, and to change the convention's location would almost ensure the secret of their existence being exposed.

Lance entered and admired the lobby's décor. It was similar to his last visit, but it had been modernized during his time away to keep up with the rapidly evolving humans.

They approached the front desk and watched as the receptionist's yellow eyes peered from over the frames of her sunglasses. She took a whiff of the air before she smiled politely.

"You must be the merpeople's representative. You'll be staying in room 515, enjoy your stay!" she said chipperly as she gave him the key to his room. Hunk's process was a bit more involved and required an ID check before he was allowed into his room, 510.

They thanked her before they made their way to the elevator, at Hunk's insistence that Lance not attempt the stairs.

When the doors shut, with just the two of them in the elevator, Hunk turned to Lance. "She must have been a full-blooded Galra." He began. "Her eyes were _totally_ yellow."

"Galra?" Lance asked.

"You know, the-well I guess you wouldn't know, huh?" Hunk rambled, "Well, you see, the Galra have pretty much overrun the population and everywhere they settle has resulted in various subspecies. The ones here on earth are called "werewolves" by the humans. Though, I suppose werecat would be more accurate." He laughed to himself.

Lance, who was being bombarded with all of this information, struggled with everything being presented to him. _Galra? Werewolves…cats?_

Before he could decide on any particular question the elevator arrived at the fifth floor.

When the doors slid open, Hunk exited and turned left with a quiet farewell and a promise to see him later. Lance stepped off of the elevator more cautiously and looked at the doors. To his left the door numbers read 505 and on his right the door numbers were 506. He turned right and followed the narrow hallway watching as the numbers on the doors increased.

He was so focused on the numbers, that he was startled when someone brushed by him at room 512.

" _Don't_ touch me!" he yelled as he recoiled. He knew that there were no others of his kind and had panicked that a human had touched him.

He glared accusingly at the invader and found a young man with pale skin, dark hair that was short up front and long in the back, and dark eyes that were wide with surprise. Those same eyes quickly narrowed as the man sneered and sniffed the air. He paused before he inhaled deeply through his nose before he caught himself.

The man returned Lance's glare before he left with a muttered, "Whatever." He walked a few doors down before he entered the room just a little further down.

 _There's. No. Way._ Lance thought in disbelief as he followed where the other man had left. He passed by the stranger's room door and found the numbers read 514.

 _Well, shit._

Room 515 was just as nice as the other room he'd stayed at here years ago. The couch and coffee table with a television on a stand were almost identical. There was a sliding glass door that led to a screened in balcony. To the left of the entryway, there was a small kitchen complete with refrigerator, microwave, and sink, and Lance knew that if he pulled the handle of the cabinet at the end, there'd be a garbage disposal tucked away. The bedroom was in a separate room and the queen-sized bed was visible along with the standard nightstand and lamp.

Still fuming over his last encounter and the fact that the perpetrator was in the room next to his, Lance dug into the pockets of his swim trunks and pulled out the pill bottle. He set it on the counter closest to him before he entered the bedroom and found the bathroom.

Luckily, the hotel owners had the foresight to install automatically locking doors, for their clients that didn't understand the need for locked doors, or else they might receive an unwelcome visitor in the middle of the night.

Lance gladly pulled his beauty products out of his pockets and set them on the bathroom counter. There was a shower that was also a bath, a 3-piece counter with a sink in the middle under a large mirror, a dirty linen basket, and a toilet.

When he closed the door, there was a fluffy white robe hanging on the back of it. He messed with the shower and managed to turn it on eventually. He shed his trunks before he stepped under the water and was immobilized from the extreme temperature difference. The shower was icy cold as he began to scrub his body. The sand that was already there from his arrival allowed him to preserve his fine sand supply. As the sand from his body disappeared down the drain, the water began to warm up, or he'd grown accustomed to it. It wasn't until Lance was almost done rinsing his hair that he realized it was the former, as the water reached a scalding hot temperature that reminded him of when he would swim too close to the magma.

As he hissed in pain, he hurriedly finished his hair before he turned off the shower's water. The hotel apparently did _not_ want people wasting water. Lance thought to himself as he covered his reddened tan skin with the fluffy robe.

He used his kelp oil on his face before he rolled his hair in the coral rollers. The process was made more difficult when his hair wasn't floating freely and was weighed down by gravity and lingering water.

With a yawn, Lance crawled on the bed. He determinedly didn't think about his family and was left with his thoughts on the three people he'd met tonight.

 _That Galra lady seemed nice, and that guy Hunk is okay too. But, man! That other guy was a complete asshole. And his hair was ridiculous!_ Lance still couldn't believe that he was only one room away from him.

Keith couldn't believe he was only one room away from him.

After he'd entered his room, he'd leaned against his door and listened to the half-naked boy as he walked right by his door and entered into the room next to his. As he passed by, Keith got another taste of the delicious smell the other man had.

Keith couldn't place his finger on it, but he thought he knew what that smell was. He cursed his Galra lineage that he was so affected by this other person's smell that he'd had to _back down_ from their confrontation before he took a bite out of the stranger.

The man held his face in his hands as he went over their encounter in the hall again. Why had he given into his baser instincts and smelled the stranger in order to identify what they were? Keith knew the answer, he'd always struggled with control over his emotions and today was just a kick in the nose for his fault.

He listened as the other moved about his room, unwillingly. He was being _such_ a creep right now! He knew and was powerless to stop himself as he heard the faint sound of the shower turning on.

He sighed with relief as he willed himself to move away from his position in front of the door. He tried to breathe through his mouth, but that only enhanced the smell and allowed him to taste it now. He snapped his mouth shut and groaned as he went into his room and bundled himself in his blankets to block out the smell and sounds.

Luckily, his other neighbor was snoring away in the next room and helped make it hard to concentrate on the sounds from the delicious-smelling stranger's room. Keith was confrontational and aggressive, but he wasn't a bad guy. He didn't want to end up being consumed by his more animal side and attacking the other.

As it became stuffy under his blankets he debated on leaving or calling his only friend to keep him company. After a few minutes, he heard the shower turn off and the other flop onto their bed.

He knew the next few hours were going to be long and painful.

The next morning, Lance stretched his body languidly before he left the soft cushion of his bed and went to the bathroom. He relieved himself, as he'd learned on his humanities trip, before he washed his hands using the weird smelling soap that was next to the sink, because of _germs_. He washed his face again before he reached up and sleepily removed his coral rollers from his hair. Feeling more awake, Lance assessed his appearance in the mirror to make sure his gills were hidden.

He panicked when he saw his hair wasn't straight like it was normally. He ran his hand through his hair and it got snagged on the many curls. He ran out to ask his mom what to do, or _someone_ , but there was no one here with him. There was Hunk, but he didn't know how to get in touch with him other than to go to his room. _What was the number?_

Cursing his inattentiveness, Lance sat down heavily on his bed with a sigh. He heard the rude man from last night's door get knocked on before there was muffled conversation. It sounded like an argument for a minute before it quieted down to the point where Lance wasn't even sure if they were still speaking.

He looked down at his robe before he sighed and went for his trunks. He would have to go down to the gift shop now that it was open, in order for him to get something warmer to wear.

He shuffled over to the counter and grabbed the pill bottle before he ingested another stone. He could feel it as it slid all the way down and felt like it lodged in his throat.

With a steadying breath, Lance opened the door of his room and trotted to the elevator. He pressed the button and waited for it to arrive before he entered the empty elevator and hit the button for the first floor.

He found the large windows of the gift shop full of all manner of strange souvenirs and gravitated towards them. He approached the counter and asked if he could have a set of clothes.

The sale's clerk looked down his nose at Lance. "If you have the money."

"Money? Can't I just trade some manual labor for it or something?"

"Was that a joke? I'm afraid it's not very funny." The clerk sneered.

"All right. Listen here, _surface-dweller_ , manual labor is all I have." Lance snapped.

The clerk sighed as he visibly restrained his emotions. "I am sorry sir. The only thing I can offer is a free t-shirt souvenir that will be available at the entrance of the convention. How does that sound?"

It was only a shirt but it was better than nothing. With a look of gratitude Lance accepted. He had just pulled the black cloth that read, "All Just Aliens", over his head when he heard someone call his name.

He turned and found Hunk at the gift shop's doors. He was just feeling thankful for the familiar face when he continued, "What happened to your hair?"

Filled with momentary frustration Lance waved away the question. "Doesn't matter. Do you have a hat or some way to straighten this mess?"

"Uh no, not really. I kind of just- Hey! How'd you get that shirt? The convention hasn't even started."

Lance pointed behind him at the sale's clerk, "This guy took pity on me because I have no clothes other than my trunks and no money to buy anything else."

"I thought it was strange that you didn't have any luggage. All right, pick out an outfit." Hunk ordered.

"But I don't have any money?"

"I'll cover it. We can go somewhere cheaper after this to get you some more clothes and essentials."

"Really?" Lance asked, feeling touched.

Hunk nodded with a smile and motioned Lance to shop around. The merman perused the selection and picked a blue shirt that matched his eye color and a pair of coral colored shorts with a white clamshells pattern.

"Those are for-you know what. Never mind." The sales clerk stopped himself from criticizing Lance's selection.

Lance gave his items to Hunk, who looked at his feet before adding a pair of black flipflops to the pile. The demigod placed the outfit on the counter and waited for the clerk to ring them up before he paid for the overpriced items.

He gave them to Lance and pointed out the men's restroom near the gift shop. "You can change in there. After you're done we can go to a nearby store and get some more things for you during your stay."

Continuously amazed by Hunk's generosity, Lance nodded and entered the restroom. He exchanged his current shirt for the blue one and his trunks for the shorts. It felt a little odd, and he wondered how humans could stand having their genitals constantly rubbing against everything all the time. Lance shivered at the sensation before he decided it was much better to have it protected behind the sheath of his scales.

He collected his other items and returned to Hunk. "Just let me put these back in my room and we can go." He was a little nervous about venturing into the human infested world, but was comforted by Hunk's presence.

"You can just put it in my car, if you want. Then we only have to make one trip back." He offered.

"Car?" Lance asked.

"You know. A car… they are used to-"

"I know what a car is, Hunk." Lance deadpanned. "I just find it an odd concept that you have one."

"I rented one so I could get around this place. I don't own one because on the island you really don't need one." Hunk explained.

"Ah." Lance replied in understanding.

Their shopping trip was rather uneventful. The humans ignored the two men and Lance was grateful for that fact. The most exciting thing was when Hunk asked if he had underwear.

 _"_ _What do you mean, 'underwear?'" Hunk cried out in alarm. "Are you not wearing any- you know what? Never mind. Get some boxers and briefs to see which one you like."_

Hunk had refused to make eye contact with him for a while after that but eventually the awkwardness passed.

Hunk had gotten him some hair products and a hair towel so that he wouldn't need his coral rollers. They returned to the hotel after an hour and Hunk reminded Lance to grab his items from his car. When they reached the fifth floor, Lance thanked Hunk for all of his help and the two went their separate ways. With two bags in each hand, Lance followed the hallway to room 515, He maneuvered his items so that he could grab the door and pushed down on the handle. Nothing happened.

"What?" Lance asked himself as much as the door before he remembered that he needed his keycard.

Laughing to himself, Lance set down his burden and reached into his pockets. _Empty_. Feeling a sense of dread, Lance recalled that he was wearing new shorts. Giving a weak chuckle at himself again he kneeled and searched through the bags until he found his trunks and searched their pockets… _empty_.

"Oh. _Fuck!_ " his favorite of the human curse words.

This wasn't happening to him. What was he supposed to do now? Lance stayed kneeled on the ground as he clutched his curly hair and felt even angrier. He slammed his fist on the door, "Shit!"

"Are you okay?" asked a concerned voice.

Lance whipped around. There was no one there. He spun around to check if he'd misheard where the direction of the voice was coming from and found empty space as well.

"Oh. Sorry."

When Lance turned around again, there was a tall, muscular man with black hair that had a tuft of white for bangs.

"I keep forgetting myself." The stranger laughed.

"Who are you?" Lance asked, spooked.

"Shiro the friendly ghost." The man laughed at his own joke. When Lance didn't laugh and only looked confused the man muttered to himself, " _He_ didn't get it either."

At a conversational volume Shiro continued, "Look, I heard you yelling out here, sounding worse than a sailor, and thought I'd ask what was wrong."

Lance didn't particularly trust this 'Shiro the friendly ghost', but something told him that he was a good person.

"I forgot my keycard and now I'm locked out of my room." Lance admitted.

Shiro paused before he responded, "You say this is your room?"

At Lance's nod, Shiro looked torn. "It's not that I don't believe you or anything. But I can't exactly just _let_ you into this room unless I know it's yours. Trusting the wrong people put me in my situation in the first place and all that. Is there any way to prove this is your room?"

"Well, I had the key. But if I had that now I wouldn't need your help, now would I?"

Shiro huffed in exasperation, "Is there at least anyone who saw you go in here?"

Lance groaned before he replied, "No one." A memory flashed through his mind, "My neighbor could vouch for me! After we argued and he went into his room, he _must_ have heard me go into this room last night."

Shiro looked at the door to room 514 in amazement, "This room right here?" After Lance's nod Shiro smiled brightly before he disappeared _through the door_

Now, Lance was really creeped out. A few moments later the door opened and the man from last night appeared. His eyes had bags under them and his hair and clothes were a mess as he squinted at Lance.

"Yeah, that's him. Now let me _sleep¸_ Shiro!" With that the door was shut and Shiro phased through the door again.

"Sorry about Keith. He didn't sleep last night and has been a grouch…well, even grouchier, all day." Shiro laughed. "Give me a second."

He phased through Lance's door and after a moment the handle pulled down and the door opened. Lunging at the opportunity, Lance used his body to prop the door open as he crouched and gathered his bags and pulled them inside.

When he was finished, he looked up at Shiro and felt an uncontrollable sense of admiration for him. " _Thank you!_ " he cried.

With a laughed, "You're welcome." Shiro rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I guess I should get going now." He floated around Lance but before he could get out of the door the merman asked, "Not to be rude. But what exactly _are_ you?"

"I'm a ghost." Shiro answered with a touch of sadness, ready for Lance to freak out.

"I thought this was an alien convention?"

Shiro was surprised at Lance's nonchalance as he responded, "It is."

"So…you're not an alien?"

"No." was the simple reply.

"Then why are you here?" Lance asked finally.

"I'm a friend of Keith's. I keep him company where he lives. He's been alone for so long, and yet he refuses to leave the house and meet new people. Truth is, he's only here because I threatened to cross over if he didn't."

 _Like me_. Lance thought as he learned more about this, Keith. "Doesn't that seem a little harsh?"

"Nah. I couldn't cross over, even if I wanted to. I don't know how." Shiro confessed. "But don't let him know." He whispered conspiratorially. He only felt safe with this admission, because he was sure that Keith was asleep in the next room and wouldn't be able to overhear him.

"I won't." Lance promised.

 _That bastard._ Keith didn't like to speak ill of his only friend, but this was an exception. He'd been lying awake smelling the stranger and listening to their voice when he'd heard Shiro's confession.

Keith did _so_ leave the house. It was just that he lived in the desert so there was no one around. That wasn't his fault!

He'd show him. He'd stay the whole two weeks of the convention now, and at the end. He'd let Shiro know that he was in on his little _deception_.

"I'm sorry. We've been talking and I didn't even get your name. That was rude of me." Shiro apologized.

"Name's Lance. And don't worry about it. Apparently not wearing underwear is rude too." Lance confessed with a laugh.

"No it isn't. Who told you that?"

"Well. My friend made a big deal over it, so I assumed it was rude. I'm not too familiar with human customs…sorry."

"Well… it's not rude, but it is a little odd. Some people believe that not wearing underwear is a sexual thing, but I don't think so."

"You know, Shiro? You're alright." Lance announced.

"Thank you?" Shiro replied bashfully.

 _Lance._ Was the last thought Keith had before passing out and missing the rest of the conversation.

The two continued to chat before Shiro phased through the wall separating Keith and Lance's room to let him put away his things. Before he even started, he went into the bathroom and searched the counter for his room's key card. Sure enough, there they were.

He clutched the key card in his hand as he vowed to never forget it again, before he set it on the counter next to his bottle of stones.

He set the clothes on the couch before he grabbed the packs of underwear. Hunk had measured his waist with a yellow strip he called, measuring tape, and assured him the underwear would fit.

He removed his shorts and tore open the one called boxers and tried a pair on. It felt like the shorts, but softer. Not that much different. He opened up the one called briefs and traded them out for his current underwear.

These were heaven. The closest he'd felt like his merself all day! These were wonderful. The humans must have realized how awkward it is to just have your genitals hanging from your body. This is what he was going to where all the time.

The next day, Lance was more prepared for the day. The convention was to start later on and he was preparing himself to deal with a large amount of people he didn't know touching him.

Exactly one hour before the convention started, Lance was dressed, had ingested another stone, and had his room key in his hand as he exited. He watched his hand as he put the key in his pocket and made his way to the first floor.

The location of the convention was a few minutes from the hotel and could be reached by traveling along the beach to minimize contact with humans.

Lance was sure that he would get there earlier than the morning rush…but he was wrong. The place was swarming with creatures already. What was he supposed to _do_ here before the Alteans had their question and answer session?

He began to look around for Hunk, or Shiro, or even _Keith_ before he found a familiar face. He kept his eyes locked on the person as he parted the sea of people milling around from one booth to another.

When he reached them, they adjusted their glasses in acknowledgment. "Matt?"

"What? No! It's _me…_ _Pidge_!" she corrected.

" _Katie?_ " Lance asked.

"Shh shh. Not so loud! I go by Pidge when I'm up here."

"What are you doing away from Atlantis? I thought Matt was supposed to attend this because he'd called 'dibs'." Lance questioned as he remembered his stay that had ended with him swimming home in the middle of the night. That had been a big argument that the siblings engaged in that had done nothing for his homesickness.

"I blackmailed Matt into letting me come along. He went off to go explore the surrounding area and left me here to answer the questions. He said he should be back before then, but if not, to meet up with him later." Pidge answered as quietly as she could in the noisy room.

The people of Atlantis were incredibly gifted with technology and had an entire civilization off the coast of Florida in the Bermuda Triangle that had yet to be discovered. Lance's school had been friends with the Atlanteans for generations and the trend continued for one of their children to visit Atlantis for a few weeks to strengthen their ties. Seeing that their school was off the coast of Cuba, it was incredibly close to the Atlanteans. They ventured to the surface less than the merfolk did, but their technology was so advanced that using the current surface technology was like using a basic calculator.

As such, Matt must have been out surveying the humans' technological expertise so that they could decide if it was time to send the next great inventor to help them reach the next point.

The two continued to catch up on what the other had missed until Pidge looked behind him. "Who're you?"

Lance turned around and found Hunk standing there. With a bright smile Lance greeted him. "Hunk! This is an old friend of mine. If I had known she'd be here I would have bothered _her_ with my problems."

With a good-natured laugh, Hunk replied, "I told you it was fine. Glad I could help! Now I get to have a familiar face as I wait around for the convention to be over."

"About that. How'd you even know about this convention? Aren't you a demigod?"

"Yeah, but when there's a visitor to your planet you gotta keep informed. Can't just let aliens come here all willy nilly without any supervision. I'm just here to make sure that nothing bad happens. Nothing ever does, mind you, but you can't be too careful." Hunk answered.

Their conversation was interrupted by Pidge, "Whoah! How is that guy levitating?"

Lance turned and found Shiro floating, in followed by Keith. The two locked eyes and he watched as Keith inhaled sharply before he glared pointedly. Lance shrugged challengingly and made a face before Keith looked away and visibly tried to calm himself. Shiro held his shoulders gently… maybe. Could he touch living things? Lance supposed he could, since he opened his door yesterday. How was that ghost thing supposed to work?

His thoughts were also interrupted by Pidge, "I'm going in."

"What?" Lance called out but it was already too late. The young woman made her way through the crowd and approached the two.

The three began a conversation as Lance shared a look with Hunk and the two made their way over to join the trio.

"You can turn invisible too?" Pidge cried out in astonishment. "Tell me what technology are you using to achieve these feats. They must be incredibly small… no. They'd have to be imbedded into your organs in order to-"

It was Pidge's turn to be interrupted as Lance interjected, "He's a ghost, Pidge."

"What?" her brain short-circuited from the sudden change in topic.

"It's true." Shiro confessed, sending a look of gratitude at Lance for stopping Pidge's tirade.

"Dude, are you okay?" Lance heard Hunk ask. He turned and followed Hunk's gaze to find Keith using his jacket's collar to cover his nose.

" _I'm fine_." Was the muffled reply.

"Okay. What's your problem?" Lance asked, finally fed up.

" _You smell_ …" As Keith thought about how to finish that sentence with something that wasn't _delicious_ , Lance took it as an insult.

"Well, _sorry_." Lance mocked. If Keith wasn't so blown away by Lance's outburst (because Keith was _actually_ trying to find something nice and not creepy and the other had reacted like he'd been insulted), he would have gotten incredibly angry at his tone. "I'll have you know, I take great care in my hygiene routine, so if I stink then that's _your_ problem!" With that, Lance stormed away filled with insecurity. When he was far enough away, he sniffed his clothes and arms but didn't find anything bad. No one else seemed to be bothered either.

 _Why would he say that?_

 _Why did I say that?_ Keith chided himself. It wasn't that he was angry at Lance for being rude and doing things that, if anyone else had done them or it was any other time, he would have pummeled them for their transgressions.

He watched Lance storm away and, because of his hyper focus on him, he heard Lance sniff himself self-consciously. He felt what others might have called regret, but why should he feel that way? He'd only been trying to say something _nice_. It was Lance's fault that he got hurt.

If he wasn't so impatient, Keith would have finished saying whatever he was going to say other than delicious.

"Why would you say that to him?" the young woman named Pidge asked accusingly.

"What? I was going to say he smelled… strongly." He finished lamely.

Pidge was taken aback and Hunk's eyes widened. Shiro slapped a hand over his eyes, the only one who understood what Keith meant by that.

"Well, I can't see how that's any better?" Pidge continued. Keith was ready to defend his honor with a duel when he felt Shiro's hand settle on his shoulder.

"He _meant_ to say that Lance smelled nice." Shiro explained.

"Then why would he cover his nose?" she challenged.

"He-Look! I don't answer to you." Keith growled. Shiro tightened his grip, but Keith shook him off. "Whatever he is? Smells so _fucking_ delicious, that I can't stop my mouth from watering. And I'm so worried I'm going to lose control and hurt him somehow that I was just trying to filter it through my jacket. That's. It!"

Pidge and Hunk were too stunned to respond, and even Shiro was quiet for a moment before he began to calm Keith down before he shifted.

"He's a mermaid, you know?" Hunk offered.

Keith looked up in confusion as Pidge smacked Hunk's arm with a, "He's a mer _man_. Get it right."

Suddenly, it all clicked into place. _Fish_. Lance smelled like a fish, and Keith's inner Galra was drawn to the smell.

With this sudden revelation, Keith felt his storm of emotions settle. It was so stupidly simple. Of course, living in the desert you're not exposed to the smell of fish…ever. This was probably why he couldn't identify the smell.

Keith felt assured that he could control himself around Lance now. Before he was worried that it was whatever creature he was that smelled so delicious. Nope. Just that he lived in the ocean and had recently transformed from his half-fish self.

It was all coming together for Keith.

Everything was falling apart for Lance.

He'd left his only friends over with that asshole and now he was alone in a sea of humans and who-knew-what-else.

He was having an internal panic attack when someone invaded his personal space from behind.

"You must not be from around here." Whispered a voice next to him.

Lance spun around and rubbed at his sensitive ear. There was a tall man with lilac skin and long white hair before him.

"No. I'm not. Now leave me alone." Lance stormed away. Outside he was shaking from anger, but inside he was trembling in fear. Something felt _wrong_ about that guy. He turned to find the safety of his friends but was intercepted by the stranger again.

"Aww, don't be like that. I'm just trying to be nice. Name's Lotor." He held out a clawed hand.

"Nice to meet you." _It wasn't nice_. Lance didn't grin so much as flash his serrated teeth at this man in warning. He hoped he would leave him alone.

"Lance?" he heard Shiro.

 _Oh, thank fuck!_

"Shiro!" Lance watched as the ghost floated through everyone while behind him, everyone else was weaving their way through the crowd. Well, all except Keith who was glaring at Lotor and shoving everyone who got in his way.

"Shiro?" Lotor asked from in front of him. The man turned and watched, transfixed, as Shiro approached.

When Shiro heard Lotor's voice, he froze.

"It can't be… you're dead."

Keith shouted for his friend in concern and snapped Shiro out of his stupor. "Was dead. I find I'm a ghost of my former self though." Shiro joked maliciously. "No thanks to you."

A memory flashed through Lance's mind of words Shiro had spoken previously. ' _It's not that I don't believe you or anything. But I can't exactly just let you into this room unless I know it's yours. Trusting the wrong people put me in my situation in the first place and all that.'_

Was Lotor responsible for Shiro's death? He at least played a part, if Lance was reading the atmosphere correctly.

"Get away from him, Lotor." Shiro demanded.

"And what are you going to do about it? Watch?" Lotor laughed and Lance felt a shiver of disgust course through him.

Whatever Lotor was going to say was stopped by a blur of purple, red, and black.

Keith, who had been keeping himself in check for so long, finally allowed his other-self free.

Lance couldn't even see what was happening as the two Galra fought. For surely, this is what Hunk was talking about. Between the two of them, Lance was able to make out purple fur over their bodies and large feline ears pressed flat against their heads.

He remained frozen until Shiro called for Keith to stop. He sounded extremely worried and it was then, that Lance noticed the wounds appearing on the two as they fought. Keith's fury and the element of surprise were quickly being triumphed by experience.

He didn't like Keith, but he didn't deserve to be maimed. Shiro couldn't help, and seeing as Pidge was weaponless and Hunk was more or less human, Lance knew it was time for him to take action. He was much weaker out of the water, but hopefully at close range, it wouldn't matter.

With a sharp breath to steady his nerves, he lunged at one of Lotor's arms. He would have preferred a weapon, but his teeth did well enough on their own. Within a second, Lotor's right arm was useless and he was yowling in pain. He began fighting to get away more than fighting to kill and that was when Lance knew he'd had enough.

He pulled away and, after words fell on Keith's deaf ears, kicked Keith off of Lotor. Seizing his chance, Lotor scrambled off to go lick his wounds or whatever he needed to do to treat his injuries.

After being struck, Keith was dazed for a moment before he picked himself up and turned to face Lance challengingly.

Shiro was calling in the background for Keith to stop and come back to his senses, but he did not acknowledge the ghost's words.

Feigning confidence, Lance stood challengingly, "You should listen to your friend." He positioned his body so that he could lunge at his attacker. "I'm not one to be trifled with."

He must have seen in his opponent's eyes that he didn't want to fight, or maybe he realized that the one before him had been an ally, because Keith remained motionless. After a few heart-poundingly tense moments, Keith spoke. "Are you okay?"

Lance was astonished. The man in front of him was scratched to hell, and had gouges in very alarming places that were slowly oozing blood. Whereas Lance was just terrified and didn't have a single injury to show for their scuffle.

"Me? I'm not the one bleeding everywhere. The better question is: are _you_ all right?"

Keith smirked and it almost looked like a smile to Lance. "I'm fine. Just wanted to make sure your feelings weren't hurt again." He mocked.

Lance shook his head, defeated. "You are _such_ an asshole." He said without any heat behind it.

It was then, that he realized there was a crowd of onlookers watching the scene. Some had been recording it to show their friends. Others had run away in panic and the rest were just watching something they found entertaining.

"This is the most I've action I've _ever_ seen at one of these things. And this is my fifth one!" Hunk stage whispered to Pidge who, after smacking him for his inappropriately timed humor, turned to him in amazement and began a series of questions.

Keith calmed himself down and his fur faded to reveal his skin again. His tufted ears melded back into his skull, and Lance wondered if his transformation had looked half as pretty as Keith's did.

Lance helped Keith to the convention's makeshift infirmary along with Hunk on the other side. Pidge and he continued their banter while Shiro, Lance, and Keith remained silent. Keith was quiet because he was sure if he were to make a sound it would be whimpers of pain and he was _not_ about to let that happen. Lance was wondering what his life had come to in order to use pretty to describe _anything_ about Keith. And Shiro floated alongside them, feeling useless and guilty, as his own thoughts whispered cutting words at him.

The person who was working there was quick to cover the wounds and had Keith rest in one of the cots until his wounds clotted enough that he could move without bleeding everywhere. She explained that Keith's Galra abilities would have him "right as rain" in a "jiffy". Lance hoped that meant he'd be better soon.

It was only after Pidge and Hunk had left the other three to rejoin the convention that Shiro spoke.

"I'm sorry, Keith."

Keith cracked open one of his eyes and assessed Shiro's guilty posture. "Shut up." _It's not your fault._ He managed not to whimper.

Lance, sensing the mood, kept his mouth shut. For anyone else, the atmosphere would have been unbearable.

"No, Keith. I'm sorry. I couldn't help you. What if something like that happens and there isn't anyone around who can help?"

"We'll-", he gasped in pain, he _really_ wished Shiro would do this some other time, "we'll cross that bridge when we find it."

Hearing Keith gasp in pain, and knowing that he had pushed him that far, Shiro's face screwed up with guilt and he turned and fled to wallow in his self-made depression.

Keith cursed quietly before he whimpered in pain, physical and emotional. His frustration increased at his inability to help Shiro with this ridiculous notion that he had something to feel guilty about.

Taking pity on Keith, Lance made to get up as he announced, "I'll go talk to him."

He felt a pull on his shorts. He looked back and saw Keith telling him with his eyes to _stay_. After looking back to where Shiro had disappeared, Lance settled down in the chair next to Keith's bed.

"He's going to," a swallow of pain, "feel like this no matter what we say." Keith paused to collect himself. "He's insufferable when he gets like this."

Lance laughed lightly.

There was a long stretch of silence before either of them spoke.

"Fishy." Keith announced.

"What?"

"You smell fishy. S'what I was going to say earlier." Keith explained.

 _Was that good or bad?_ Not seeing anything malicious about the tone or posture of the injured man in front of him, Lance accepted his words with an, "Oh. Thank you?"

"Hmm." Was all he got in reply.

They sat a half hour in relative silence. Both lost in thoughts about Shiro and each other. Before, "Oh shit!" Lance jumped up in alarm.

"What?"

"I forgot about the Altean's speech!"

"Who cares?" Keith asked, not wanting Lance to leave him alone.

"I do! It's the only reason I'm here." He began to stand and Keith sighed as he struggled to sit up.

"Wait. I'll go with you." He offered.

"Sit down and get better. I'll come back when I'm done, Mr. Clingy." Lance ordered.

"I am _not_ clingy!"

"Are too!"

"Since when does being concerned for the safety of others make someone clingy?" Keith challenged.

"It doesn't."

"See?"

"But you don't want to follow me for my safety. You just can't bear to be apart from me." Lance finished dramatically.

Keith felt a flush of either anger or embarrassment on his face, "Get over yourself."

Lance laughed at his expense and left without seeing if Keith followed him or not. Keith sat on the bed debating on whether to follow after that conversation when Lance poked his head back into the doorway.

"You coming or not, Mr. Hero?" he mocked with a giggle.

 _Definitely anger._


	2. Convention Arc Pt2

Lance trotted down the hallway as he tried to make it to the Altean speech. He could hear Keith trying to keep up with him, so he slowed his pace. The duo continued to walk down the hall getting slower and slower as Keith tried to push past his pain.

With a sigh, Lance stopped in the middle of the hallway and waited for Keith to catch up.

"What are you standing around for? I thought you _had_ to get to that speech?" Keith huffed as he reached the merman.

Lance raised a single eyebrow, "I was waiting for your slow ass to catch up."

"Shut up." Keith ordered without any heat in his words as he brushed past Lance and continued limping down the hall.

Lance watched as he tried to mask his pain and his arms remained stiff at his sides so they wouldn't clutch his wounds. After shaking his head in exasperation, he jogged a few steps to reach Keith. He watched the other out of the corner of his eye and felt an indescribable urge to just _touch_ the Galra. Lance sucked in a breath before he hesitantly reached out his hand and grabbed the other's.

Keith pulled his hand away as if burned, "What are you doing?" he cried out in alarm and stopped in the hall.

Lance stopped as well before he held his hands up placatingly, "I just wanted to hold your hand." He explained.

He was used to constant touches of affection, having lived with such a large family. He would never admit to anyone that he liked contact. But, he didn't like strangers touching him unless he chose to make contact. He figured Keith was the same way about touch, but the other didn't feel like a stranger to him. "I'm not sure why?" he said aloud.

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose, "Lance, I don't know how mer… _people_ ," he began questioningly, "Do things. But up here, we don't just hold hands for no reason."

"Why not?" Lance asked, embarrassed at his own actions. He would play the, 'naïve merman' card Keith had given him. "And there _is_ a reason, by the way."

"It's just not-", he paused, "What reason?" Keith asked curiously as he pulled his hand away from his face to stare into Lance's eyes. _Blue, huh?_

"I can't say for sure. But I don't like touching just anyone… there's something about you, Keith." He finished, his tone and face sincere. Then he shrugged and closed his eyes and haughtily said, "Of course, it could just be that I'm feeling the remnants of pity that you got hurt on my behalf."

"You wish!" Keith's face flushed slightly.

Lance laughed, "Well, are you going to accept my consolation prize of hand holding or not?"

"You can take your pity and shove it right up your ass!" the Galra hissed.

"I don't want to put my hand up my ass though." Lance joked, "That doesn't sound very comfortable."

Spluttering, Keith understood the implications of his words. Mortified, he turned on his heels to start towards the convention's main room again. "Just… shut up, Lance."

The merman laughed as he trotted after Keith again. When he was level with the Galra, a thought occurred to him.

"How'd you know I was a merman?"

 _Hunk told me_. Keith thought about saying before, "I could smell it on you."

Lance looked at him with a touch of awe before he controlled himself. He hummed in understanding and they lapsed into a comfortable silence.

They walked for five seconds more before Keith snatched up Lance's hand with a, "Give me that." Lance smiled so wide he was afraid his sharp teeth would peek out from his upper lip.

Keith remarked at the odd texture of Lance's skin, while Lance enjoyed the slightly calloused hands of the Galra.

They continued their trek holding hands and not looking at each other until they reached the main doors. Keith's hand loosened and, with a momentary panic, Lance tightened his hold. He wanted the other's comforting touch as they made their way through the sea of strange, human-like creatures, "Not yet… please?"

Keith gave Lance a long look before he returned the other's firm grip with a nod of acceptance. The Galra pushed open the heavy doors and the pair stepped into the chaotic sea of bodies.

Lance kept his body close to Keith's, to the point that their shoulders would brush against each other's. The support they felt from the other helped them through as they tried to find the booth that would host the Altean speech.

Keith was still in pain, but Lance's presence made him want to be strong. He could have sworn that the longer they held hands, the less pain he felt. They couldn't see it because of the sunlight that streamed from the large glass ceiling, but Lance's hand was glowing softly where his skin touched Keith's.

The two entered into the large auditorium and found that the Alteans had arrive on stage. Thanking their lucky stars, the duo found a spot on the wall where they could lean. They had shown up too late to find a seat.

Lance scanned the crowd and found Pidge and Hunk sitting directly in front of the stage. He called out to them so he could let them know that they were out of the infirmary, but over the buzzing inside of the room, his voice was drowned out.

Keith watched the scene and felt a bubble of protectiveness when Lance seemed to wilt at his failure. He gave their joined hands a comforting squeeze, and when Lance turned to face him Keith gave him a small, reassuring smile.

Lance's eyes closed as he returned it with one of his own, his sharp teeth peeking out from under his upper lip.

The sound of a microphone being tested drew their attention.

"Hello everyone. I'd like to thank everyone here for their continued interest in the lives of organisms outside of their own planet. _You_ are the reason we return here every one hundred years." The white-haired woman's words were met with raucous applause. Lance and Keith both cringed from the sudden influx of noise.

"My name is Allura, Princess of Altea." She finished regally.

"And I'm her mechanic slash bodyguard, Coran!" a man announced as he ran to stand next to her. His slicked back orange hair and bushy mustache were a stark contrast to the elegant hairstyle the princess sported.

"Today we are going to be going over the many systems outside of this one, and how every system is important to maintain the balance. And how it is imperative that we put a stop to the decrease in original lifeforms because of invasive species overpopulating."

There were a lot of cheers for this as well. Keith looked down and away from the stage, his body shaking with repressed emotions. Lance noticed the movement and shuffled closer to Keith until their arms were touching. The Galra looked at Lance and gave him a nod of appreciation as his body stilled.

"Yes, the Galra have continued to multiply and have had to spread their population to almost every known stabilized planet. Every planet they land on is quickly overrun with their overpopulation and the native organisms are forced to limit their reproductive levels. This has caused many species to go nearly extinct. I beseech you to learn from them."

Lance squeezed Keith's hand, for surely, not all Galra were as bad as what this princess was accusing them of.

Keith could not stomach the amount of negativity he felt radiating from this woman with her words. He wanted to leave before he knew for certain she was talking about the Galra. It was because of talk like this, that his parents had been murdered. His mother for being a Galra, and his father for being the unlucky human who fell in love with her.

But when he felt Lance's arm rest against his own, he knew that he could bear the topic… because Lance was there.

It was because of his lineage that Keith relocated to the desert. There was no one there to harass him for what he was. No one there for him to reproduce with and fall into the stereotype his species had. But most importantly, no one was there to see him be miserably alone.

Sure he had Shiro, but it still felt like he was missing something. He realized, with Lance, he didn't feel that way at all. He felt an inner peace that he'd never experienced before. He marveled at this revelation and before he knew it, Allura's speech was over and the questions had begun.

" _Finally_." He heard Lance mutter next to him. His patience for whatever the rest of the speech had been about apparently wearing thin.

"Yes, you in the green shirt." Allura called as she pointed into the crowd.

A large woman stood, her head had four nubs on the top and two earlike horns, one on each side of her head, each with its own large, hoop earring.

"Oh, um. I have a question for the Princess regarding the continued use of our home's Balmera crystals as the Alteans' energy source. My people just wanted to ensure that this relationship has not changed." She asked.

"Of course, our relationship still stands as it always has been. Why would you think otherwise… I'm sorry, I didn't get your name."

"Shay, Your Highness. It is just that, if our relationship still stands, why have you not sent aid to my people who were being forced to overmine the Balmera. The Paladins have done a wonderful job to remove the foremen overseeing my people's suffering, but the fact remains that many of my people are still suffering."

"Then I'm afraid I don't understand why you're unsure of our people's relatioinship." Allura confessed.

"While the enemies have been removed, the overmining of the Balmera has driven it close to death. It has been nearly twenty quintents and the Alteans have yet to send someone to help heal the damage that has been done. My people fear for the Balmera's life if it left in this state without any help." Shay spoke passionately about her people's issues, and she was passionate. Catching a ride with a travelling merchant who was going to the Altean convention in order to speak with them as quickly and directly as possible barely scratched the surface of her fervent desire to protect her home.

Allura shared a look with Coran before she turned back and promised Shay that they would be sending a message to Altea in order to have the Balmera's problem resolved. Coran ran off the stage, presumably to send the previously mentioned message.

There were a few more questions answered before Lance was able to ask the status of the merfolk of his species home planet. At the mention of merfolk, almost every member of the conference turned to catch a glimpse of a member of the elusive merpeople.

Keith's muscles tightened as his body geared for a fight. The people closest to them recognized Keith from the fight earlier and averted their eyes.

"Ah, yes. There was a bit of excitement during the time since our last convention. The merpeople, of Queen Luxia's reign, were plagued by a large serpent that was eating them. The population took a severe blow before the Paladins were able to stop the serpent and save the village."

At the mention of _eating_ , Lance's body stiffened with momentary fear. Keith was curious to know the reason why.

"Ah, talking about the merpeople, eh?" Coran's voice was heard moments before he appeared on stage again. "Count yourselves lucky! Very few are treated to a mermaid's exquisite beauty." He advised as he twisted one of the sides of his mustache.

Lance felt his face explode with heat as he realized, not just everyone in the room, but all of his new friends had just heard that comment. He would never live this down.

In true Pidge fashion, her voice could clearly be heard over the whispering voices, "Ya hear that Lance? _Exquisite beauty_! I wonder what happened to _you_?" she began to laugh hysterically at his expense.

Lance shrank in embarrassment before he heard Keith laugh next to him. A sudden burst of anger lent him the courage to speak.

"I'll have you know, what we lack in beauty we have more than made up for with adaptability. We're able to exist in depths you Atlanteans couldn't even fathom. _We_ don't need advanced technology to make sure we aren't discovered." Lance argued, feeling slightly insecure about his appearance.

Pidge shrugged, "Use what you have, my friend. Atlanteans have brains and technology. And the merfolk apparently have adaptability and…", a snort of laughter, " _beauty_ going for them."

Coran, realizing this argument was his fault (because Allura used her elbow to nudge his side and motioned to the two fighting) began to apologize and asked the two not to fight. The two opponents evaluated the man onstage before they turned to face each other again.

"Pidge, because we are family friends I'll forget this entire argument if you stop, right now, and never bring up the beauty thing again." Lance offered warningly.

"I don't know…"

"Pidge!"

" _Fine_ , I won't." Pidge promised begrudgingly. "Big baby." She grumbled under her breath.

With a nod, Lance leaned back against the wall.

Seeing the issue resolved, Allura asked Pidge if she had any questions that needed answering.

"Boy do I!" Pidge cheered as she took out a small screen that she would use to take notes. "Okay, so about the energy source you've been using? Balmera crystals? How easily can they be obtained? How do you use them? Would it be possible for the effects to be replicated here on earth?" A breath. "On how large a scale can these crystals function? What are they primarily used for? How long do these crystals' energy last? And finally, what kind of atmosphere do these crystals need in order to decay the slowest?"

"Um, well I don't really know how to start with that." Allura confessed before Coran, who had been getting increasingly excited to the point he was hopping from one foot to the other, pushed past the Princess and approached Pidge.

"I do! You see, the Balmera crystals are obtained through the careful Altean trade secret that allows us to give as well as take… to prevent an imbalance. They can be extremely difficult to obtain if you find a Balmera that hasn't been colonized." And on he went answering each of the woman's questions, who would have even _more_ questions following. The duo continued on to the point that Allura asked them to continue elsewhere so the rest of the attendees could ask their questions.

The issue resolved with Pidge and his obligations to his people fulfilled, Lance motioned to Keith that he was ready to leave. Suddenly the most chipper Lance had ever seen him, Keith pulled the other man along until they had exited the convention area.

The two shared a momentary bliss without the enormous amount of people crowding around them.

"I thought we'd never make it out of there." Lance complained jokingly before he turned a somber gaze to Keith. "Whatever she said…don't worry about it. She's just looking at data and not the people who make up those numbers. Pidge is like that sometimes too."

"Well, whatever she said, the fact remains: Galra reproduce at an alarmingly rapid rate. There's no denying that. I'm only a single child because my father was a human and both my parents are dead."

Lance looked at Keith consideringly. Honestly, he was surprised that he wasn't freaking out by Keith's confession of being human. His mother was right. This trip was helping him grow.

Lance didn't apologize for Keith's parents' deaths. He _did_ feel remorse for the fact that Keith was an orphan and felt slightly ashamed for feeling grateful for his school's continued survival. But, Lance felt that any apology would be shallow and insincere since he didn't know Keith's parents. Hell, he barely knew _Keith_!

Keith was still brooding as he stewed in his thoughts and Lance left him to it. Looking down, he realized that their hands were still entwined. He thought about letting go, but the connection felt nice. Before going on shore, Lance had never spent an entire day without physical contact. Here he was, day three of the convention and the only contact he'd had was brief and meaningless other than the time he'd held Keith's hand.

Lance was struck with a sudden thought, "Should we go after Shiro?"

After a hum of confusion, Keith registered Lance's words, "We could. I don't know where he would go other than my room though." He confessed.

Lance nodded, "Then let's go."

The pair made their way back to Keith's room. The trip went quicker because Keith seemed to be almost completely healed. They received a few odd looks from people they passed by due to their connected hands, but were left alone.

When they reached Keith's room, Lance looked at the door to his room next to it. He reached into his pocket with his free hand and found the keycard safely tucked away and breathed a sigh of relief.

During his item check, Keith had used _his_ free hand to get his keycard and open the door. The two walked in and Lance found an almost mirrored version of his room. Though, all of the curtains were drawn and the room was dark.

"Shiro?" Keith called tentatively, well tentatively for him.

There was a long pause before Shiro appeared in front of them. His face was gloomy and his transparent skin looked even paler.

"Shiro!" the Galra cried out in alarm. "What happened to you?"

"I died." Was the sullen reply.

"Shiro, this is no time to be joking. Now tell me what happened."

"Nothing. _Nothing_ happened to me." Shiro admitted as he sank to the floor and stood rather than floated. "And that's exactly the problem. It all happened to you."

Lance remained quiet, but when he averted his eyes to give _some_ form of privacy he noticed his hand was glowing where Keith touched him. Yanking his hand away as if he'd been scalded, Lance yelped in panic.

"Lance?" Shiro and Keith asked with concern in unison.

"What's wrong?" Shiro asked.

"Our hands. They were glowing. Well, _mine_ was glowing." Lance admitted. "But that's only supposed to happen with-" he never finished what he said as he stormed off to his room.

Shiro made to follow after him but Keith called him back.

After Lance left, the atmosphere in the room grew more tense than it had ever been between Shiro and Keith. The Galra felt emptier than he had been before Lance had grabbed his hand, but shook off the feeling to focus on the problem at hand.

Shiro kept shooting worried glances after Lance in the silence before Keith spoke up, "He can take care of himself, so quit worrying." Even as he spoke those words, he was listening as Lance paced in his room muttering quietly to himself. He'd have to ask him what had happened later.

Shiro sighed in defeat and turned to face Keith.

The Galra watched him for a long moment before, "Tell me."

"Keith, over the years… I have been watching out for you. Even before I died, I helped your parents look after you. When they died, I promised myself I'd never let anything bad happen to you." Shiro paused to arrange his words, "Your parents weren't just killed because they were a Galra couple..." Shiro took a steadying breath before he continued, "There is a group of people who operate under a Galra named, Lotor."

Keith sucked in a breath as he recognized the name from yesterday.

"This group believes in Galra purity. So, when they discovered your mother had married a human and had you, well… you know the rest. Because I stood in their way to you, I became a target."

When he realized he was getting answers to questions he'd been too scared to ask, Keith remained in contemplative silence as he listened.

"On Lotor's orders, I was attacked and captured. They tried to torture me to find your location. When I failed to give in, Lotor himself came in to interrogate me. I didn't break…and he killed me. Next thing I knew, I was hovering over you while you were mourning over my death some weeks later." Shiro finally finished. He'd never told Keith what exactly had happened to him.

"I should have killed that bastard when I had the chance." Keith said decidedly.

Shiro gave a short laugh. Keith seemed to always know what to say to make him feel better.

"Thank you for telling me." Keith said uncharacteristically sincere. "It really means a lot to me."

"Keith, today's encounter has made me realize. You need someone other than me watching your back. During your scuffle with Lotor, I couldn't concentrate on anything other than the fact that this was the man who had killed me. I froze. If that happens again, and there's no one there to help, like Lance was today, I fear that it will be the end of you."

Keith didn't wave away his words like he normally did. He instead accepted them for what they were. With his newfound knowledge about Shiro's past, it helped him see that his friend wasn't invincible. He'd realized it before, Shiro _was_ a ghost after all, but it was only now that he saw his friend for what he was. Just a man, who'd died a few years older than Keith was now, trying to do the best he could for someone he cared about.

"Shiro, I've always respected you. To be honest, I believe that I can take care of myself," Keith held up a hand when Shiro began to interrupt, "But, I will _try_ and find someone that I can rely on for situations like yesterday." His mind whispered that Lance was that someone, but first he'd need to find a way to broach the subject.

Lance was having a mini meltdown. The discord between Shiro and Keith pushed to the back of his mind as he tried to process the latest information he'd learned.

His hand had glowed where it had touched Keith. He was sure. There was only one thing that could mean, his body found Keith as a potential life partner.

But that was ridiculous. Keith was a surface-dweller. Not to mention, if they did bond, neither of them could have children. Why would his body suggest Keith had any potential? It didn't make any sense. Then again, a lot of things on the surface didn't make sense.

 _Focus, Lance._

Okay, so his body found Keith worthy of being his life partner. That didn't mean that Keith saw him in that way, and it also didn't mean that Lance _had_ to choose him. Right?

Lance stopped pacing and groaned as he clutched at his head, realizing he was already beginning to fall for the surly Galra.

This wasn't right! He'd only known Keith for a few days. He scrubbed at his head before he walked into his room and sank into the mattress. There were a few ways he could go about this.

He could come straight out and admit to Keith about his feelings and hoped that the other would push him away. No, he didn't hope that. Lance admitted he would like for Keith to accept his feelings and hopefully return them.

 _Stop_. _What about your school?_

His school! He'd forgotten that he was miserable without them when he was with Keith. He was a bad son and brother. But hadn't his mother _wanted_ him to find someone to settle down with?

Lance shook his head and waved away those thoughts.

He could also just ignore his feelings. Or rather, keep them to himself. It was only for a short time. He could do it. The convention was over in a week and a half.

Wait a minute? He'd done his job! He could go home right now.

…

But then he wouldn't get to spend more time with Keith before he never saw him again.

"Dammit!" Lance cursed to himself.

He could keep his feelings to himself. How hard could it be?

After their little heart-to-heart, Keith left Shiro in his room to recover from his memories so that he could check on Lance. He knocked on the door and waited. He heard Lance yelp in surprise before cursing and approaching the door.

He heard Lance breathe in deeply before he opened the door and locked eyes with Keith.

"All right, Lance. Tell me what's wrong."

There was a moment of hesitation before Lance blurted, "I really like you, Keith." He cringed as he waited for a response.

Keith felt his brain short circuit. _What?_

"I had a realization earlier, that was why I left. I like you, Keith. A _lot_." Lance eyes, which had squinted in anticipation earlier, were now boldly staring into Keith's grey ones.

After a pause, Keith felt his brain reboot so he could respond. "I-I like you too." _This was his chance_. "A lot."

Lance looked like the wind had been knocked out of him. His face looked torn between joyful and disappointed.

" _Now_ what?" Keith asked, curious about the merman's expressions.

Lance looked down a moment before he gave Keith a brilliant smile. "It's nothing. I just had a thought."

Keith glared at Lance suspiciously.

Lance needed to distract Keith from getting too suspicious. He didn't want to tell him that the thought of being with Keith made him miss his school. That was inconsiderate of Keith's dead parents!

The only thing he could think to ask was, "So, what do we do now?"

"About what?" Keith looked successfully distracted.

"Well, we've established that we like each other. Now what?"

Keith looked bashful as he admitted, "Uh. Well I guess we could hold hands again, or something." He turned his reddened face away before asking accusingly, "What do your people do?"

Lance looked up in thought, "Well during mating there is a lot of chasing and such. I think my dad explained that there were different styles and that it depended on your partner's likes. But we aren't mating anytime soon, so I guess. We just rub against each other often and stay close?" He'd seen his parents do that for most of his childhood and didn't find anything embarrassing about it.

He could try doing those things with Keith. When he looked up, Keith looked a little disheartened.

"Do you not like that?" Lance asked worriedly.

Breaking out of his sullen mood, Keith shook his head and reassured that Lance's suggestions sounded fine.

Lance made a note to himself to ask someone about what surface dwellers like to do with their partners.

"Are you going to let me in now?"

Lance focus snapped back to the situation and realized Keith was standing self-consciously in the hallway. "Oh. Yes, come in come in!"

Keith nodded as he brushed past Lance and entered the merman's apartment.

"Why is your couch covered with clothes?" was the first thing he asked.

"I don't have anywhere to put them. Hunk got those for me. He's nice." Lance answered awkwardly. It was an odd rush of feelings coursing through him. He was proud and happy with his new relationship, but he felt lost because he didn't know what to do next.

He walked over to Keith and stood close to him before he steeled himself and pressed their bodies together.

Keith jumped in surprise before he stiffened in discomfort. Lance was about to move away when he felt Keith melt into the touch.

"This isn't so bad." Keith admitted gruffly.

"Yeah." Lance agreed with a smile. It felt _really_ nice.

He heard Keith inhale deeply before he broke away. "All right. That's enough."

Keith knew he was in a dangerous predicament in Lance's apartment. When he'd breathed in the other's scent he caught a whiff of something he'd only smelled in his slightly younger years. When he had been in his room and Shiro was out and something had just rubbed him the right way.

 _Arousal._

"All right. That's enough." Keith announced as he separated from the other.

Lance pouted at the loss of contact. With all the smells in the room, Keith zeroed in on Lance's lips. He swallowed audibly as he imagined if they tasted as good as Lance smelled.

He found himself leaning forward. Lance seemed confused as he tilted his face slightly away from Keith's. Lost in the moment, he settled for Lance's neck. He ran his nose along the side of the other's neck and found three faint ridges. He didn't even pause to think it odd before his tongue flicked out and tasted the other.

"What are you-", whatever Lance had been about to ask was interrupted with a gasp, when Keith slightly nibbled the skin there.

Lance shuddered at the sensation and looked like his legs went weak. Pressing Lance backward as he continued to lick and nibble at the merman's neck, Keith felt his instincts kick into overdrive.

Lance wasn't sure what was going on, but when Keith began to bite the spot where his gills were fused shut, he felt his insides turn to liquid heat as it coursed through him. He felt his muscles relax completely and he struggled to remain standing. Keith began to push him back towards the direction of his room. When the back of his knees hit the edge of his bed he fell back onto it.

He was fully dressed, but he felt more exposed than when he was swimming, essentially naked, in the ocean. He moaned in confused arousal and felt his erection strain against his briefs.

After Lance's body was completely limp because of Keith's ministrations, the Galra sat up and looked down at the merman under him. Lance looked back up at him from under hooded eyes.

Whatever he saw, he apparently liked because he leaned forward and nuzzled Lance's nose affectionately.

If he'd felt paralyzed before, he was now lost to the world. He was in such a state of euphoria that his vision blacked out and thought left him.

He didn't know how long he'd been out before his sight returned and he found Keith calling his name with concern as he smacked his cheek lightly. Wanting to return to that state of bliss, Lance surged upwards and flipped their positions. He nuzzled Keith's chest and neck trying to achieve the same effect. When it didn't work, he huffed and looked down at Keith pleadingly.

Chuckling, Keith sat up and nuzzles Lance's nose again. When Lance froze again the Galra was prepared for it and flipped their positions once more. It was a long moment before Lance returned from his high. Keith waited for Lance to look him in the eye and found a deep sense of wonder within them.

He took the opportunity to finally kiss the other. When he licked at Lance's mouth though, the other pulled away.

"What is up with your tongue?" Lance asked, breaking the mood.

Keith knew he was asking about the bristles that were on his tongue. It was a throwback trait that some Galra had. His mother had passed it on to him and he'd always been a little self-conscious of it.

"Sorry." He apologized with a huff. "You didn't seem to mind when I was licking your sandpaper skin!"

Lance was flustered as he babbled and tried to form a sentence. "I do _not_ have sandpaper skin. I'll have you know I take great care of my skin with my beauty routine."

Keith sighed with frustration, his arousal beginning to wane. "Well I can't help the way my tongue is using beauty products."

Lance looked at him for a long moment. He found something in Keith's face that made him apologize softly. Before Keith could say anything else, Lance leaned up and kissed him soundly on the lips. It was awkward, and felt more like he was trying to suck on his lips. He apparently had no instincts to rely on for this type of affection.

Taking pity and accepting the apology, Keith took control of the kiss again. He tentatively licked at the seam of Lance's mouth again. Lance seemed unsure as he slowly opened his mouth to allow the other in.

Feeling a sudden burst of fresh arousal at being accepted, Keith's kiss increased in intensity. He swiped his tongue around the other's mouth and felt the serrated edges of the merman's teeth as his tongue brushed against them.

He rubbed it against the roof of the other's mouth to investigate further, but found the other's tongue pushing against his.

Keith opened his eyes and found Lance glaring challengingly into his eyes.

 _Challenge accepted._

Keith broke apart from their kiss and began to kiss, lick, and nibble at Lance's neck again. Within a few moments the brunet was relaxed again.

"Th-that's cheating." The other gasped.

Keith smirked as he moved down the other's body. He pushed the merman's shirt up and attacked his chest. He felt Lance grip his hair as he tried to find something to anchor him. His back arched into the Galra's actions.

Wincing at the slight pain in his scalp, he moved down the other's stomach. He reached the waistband of the other's shorts and unbuttoned them. He slid down the other's shorts and underwear as he left a trail of kisses on the exposed skin. He remarked that there was no hair anywhere before he heard Lance make a choked sound. His body seized before he fell boneless to the bed breathing heavily.

Looking down, Keith found a wet spot on Lance's shorts. Well then.

That was the second-best thing Lance had ever felt. The first was too intense to be relived, but Lance could feel the echoes of his release course through his body. When he'd caught his breath, he looked down his body at Keith. The Galra was smirking at him as he finished pulling his pants all the way down.

The other was fully dressed and Lance didn't like that one bit.

He tugged at the other's shirt and was surprised when the other instantly sat up and pulled it off. Keith through the shirt somewhere off the bed and unbuttoned his pants. He slid them down his legs and Lance appreciated the thick, muscled thighs. He marveled at Keith's erection and found the hair surrounding it odd, but not in a bad way.

He reached out a tentative hand to touch it. It was incredibly warm. Keith gasped sharply when Lance gripped it firmly.

"Easy!" Keith ordered as he grabbed the merman's wrist warningly.

Lance loosened his grip and Keith let go. He gave it a slight tug and Keith hissed and grabbed his wrist again.

"No. Like this." The Galra explained as he reached for Lance's rapidly hardening erection.

He gave the other a few gentle squeezes and strokes. Lance gasped in both shocked arousal and understanding. Keith paused, "You wanna try now?"

Lance gave a nod before he began to replicate what had been done to him. It must have been working because Keith's eyes closed and he began to breathe heavier.

With the other's eyes closed Lance thought about paying back all the things that Keith had done. With a devious smirk of his own, he leaned forward and licked at Keith's erection.

"Fuck!" was the startled yelp he heard as it became Keith's turn to grip Lance's hair.

Letting out a short giggle, Lance began to continue his actions. Lapping at the head of the other's penis before he licked a long stripe up the entire member.

"You-you should try sucking it." Keith suggested hopefully.

Not seeing anything bad that could result from his actions, Lance shrugged and swallowed Keith's erection whole. He felt his throat open up and close as if he were trying to swallow a fish whole.

He heard Keith cry out in alarm before something hit the back of his throat.

Startled, Lance pulled away from the other and was hit in the face by another stream of semen. He watched as the other quickly grabbed at his erection and pumped it a few more times before he was apparently satisfied.

Lance rubbed at the gunk on his face before he pulled his hand away. He tentatively licked it and found it tasted a little like the ocean. As he was thinking that it didn't taste awful he found Keith staring at him with a mix of heat and horror.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"Don't _eat_ it! Here," Keith stood up on unsteady legs as he made his way to the bathroom. He opened up a door under the sink that Lance hadn't even known about, and pulled out a small white cloth. He ran it under the sink for a moment before he returned. Lance had finished licking what had been on his hand and was waiting patiently for the other to return.

He was still kind of feeling the remnants of the euphoria that came with his release as the other returned. Keith stopped in front of him before he wiped his face free of the white stuff.

Keith stared down at Lance and the merman looked up at him. After a moment of hesitation, Keith reached down and gripped the other's renewed erection. Lance felt his eyes slam shut at the sensation.

It wasn't very long before Lance released again, his body still sensitive from the last one.

As he recovered he heard Keith wipe his hand with the cloth.

"We should take a shower." The Galra offered.

"No." Lance whined pitifully. He didn't want to deal with the temperamental shower the hotel's had right now.

"Why not?"

"It only lasts a few minutes and it scalds me every time." The merman complained.

"What? What are you _talking_ about?" Keith asked as he went into the bathroom and turned on the shower.

Lance got up from the bed and followed the other into the bathroom.

Keith had his hand under the water. "It feels fine to me."

"It does for a few minutes but then it gets really hot."

A minute passed and Keith stood there, "It still feels fine, Lance."

"What? That's impossible!" Lance reached under the water and was met with a nice warm temperature. "Any minute now."

When the water remained the same temperature, Keith realized Lance truly did not know anything about the surface. With a chuckle he said, "We should get in before it gets cold."

Lance reluctantly agreed and complained that it must have been because it was surface-dweller technology and only responded well when one of _them_ operated it.

" _Sure_ , Lance." Keith conceded jokingly.

The two stood under the water and Lance went about washing his hair and his body. Keith stood stiffly as the other's body would sometimes brush against him.

"You going to wash up too?" Lance asked innocently. The touches were purely affectionate to him and were the furthest thing from sexual to him.

The man in front of him was surely trying to make sure they never left their room. After Shiro had died, Keith seldom felt the need to masturbate, and when he had he hopped into a cold shower.

For years Keith had been exerting control over his arousal. Yet, in the past hour, he had felt raring to go the entire time. Even now, if his body hadn't _just_ ejaculated, he was pretty sure he'd have Lance pinned against the shower wall letting those erotic noises he made fill the air.

But, when he looked at Lance, the other was contentedly washing himself. Keith chanced a quick glance below and found all the evidence he needed that Lance wasn't interested in another round.

Realizing he'd been asked a question, Keith nodded as he silently moved in front of the other and grabbed the soap. While he washed up, Lance stepped out of the shower and grabbed his white robe from the door hanger. After it was cinched shut, Lance left the bathroom.

When Keith finished, he shut off the water and went into the cabinet under the sink and grabbed a decent sized towel to dry off with. He wrapped it around his waist and turned off the light, that had been on for who knew how long, as he exited the room.

He found Lance pulling on a pair of briefs and the ugliest shorts he'd ever seen. They were a weird orange with white seashells on them. Though, when he saw how far up the shorts ended and how nicely they contrasted with the other's tan skin, he could see the appeal.

"I'm going to my room to get some clothes." Keith announced.

"Okay. I'll be here." The merman replied as he turned around with a blue shirt in his hands. There was a black convention shirt on the ground nearby and Keith found himself asking a question he normally wouldn't care about.

"When'd you get the convention shirt?"

Lance looked at the article on the ground. "When I first got here I didn't have any clothes other than my swim trunks. The clerk took pity on me and let me have it."

"I've never seen you wear it, though."

"Yeah. I don't really like it."

Keith sighed as he asked, "And why don't you like it?"

"I don't like the clerk. He's not a nice person."

"I'm not a nice person." Keith argued truthfully. He knew he was rough around the edges and honestly, he didn't know why Lance like him.

"…you're special." Was the merman's vague reply.

"I'm touched." Keith deadpanned before he made his way out of the apartment. As he passed the small kitchen, he noticed an old prescription bottle. He paused before he investigated it. The paper that was usually wrapped around it was gone and inside were strange black stones.

"Lance, what are these?" he asked as he shook the bottle to indicate he was talking about its contents.

"Oh, those are something I take to keep my true self from appearing."

"True self?" Keith wondered if he was like him and had another form.

"Well, duh. I don't normally have the ability to walk around on land. It normally takes a small amount of concentration to maintain this human-ish appearance, but if I accidentally fall in the water I could change back. Those stones prevent that."

"So, is it like your kryptonite?" Keith asked. Even _he_ knew who Superman was.

"My what?"

 _Guess he wouldn't know that._ "Nevermind." Keith quickly backtracked and set the bottle down. Well, that was another mystery solved.

With a hum, Keith finally reached the door that would exit Lance's room.

"Bye for real!" he heard Lance call out to him.

"See you in a bit." Keith returned before he shut the door.

 _That was nice_. Lance thought to himself as he remembered the past hour. He shivered in anticipation for the next time it would happen. He hoped it would be soon.

Keith came back after a few minutes and Shiro came with him.

"So, you two are a thing now?" Shiro asked with delight. Happy that Keith had someone to watch over him when he couldn't.

"Yeah!" Lance answered just as happily. Keith rubbed his forehead in a mix of embarrassment and exasperation.

The two asked after each other and Lance learned about Shiro's path. When Lotor's name popped up, Lance felt a moment of fear before it morphed into anger. He was just about to launch into a tirade about surface-dweller scum (but not Keith and Shiro. And Hunk's okay too), before there was a frantic knock on his door.

He opened it to find Pidge and Hunk standing worriedly outside of his door.

"Pidge, what's-" Lance began before Pidge interrupted him.

"I can't find Matt!"


	3. Convention Arc Pt3

Previously:

 _"_ _I can't find Matt!"_

The lingering euphoria of Lance's earlier activities with Keith disappeared at Pidge's announcement.

"Where all have you checked?" the merman asked, understanding the worry one felt for a lost sibling.

"Well, after I was done discussing plans with the Alteans about possible new energy sources for Earth, I looked around for Matt but he wasn't there. I left to go to our prearranged meeting place at four, Hunk volunteered to wait with me after scoring a date with that Balmeran from earlier."

Before she continued, Hunk cried out in denial, "It's not a date!"

"Anyway, it was after five and he still hadn't shown up. So I figured, maybe he went back to our room? I walked back to the hotel, continuously searching with Hunk for someone who looked like me. When we made it back to my room, I entered and found the place was emptied of all of Matt's stuff."

"What?" Lance called in alarm.

"But, the thing that's most alarming? Matt left his phone on my bed. I don't care where he's going, he _always_ has his phone on him."

Keith stepped forward, "I could try and track him."

Lance turned back to him questioningly. Keith tapped the side of his nose and Lance was reminded of the fact that Keith had identified him using only his sense of smell.

"You heard him, Pidge. So, let's get going."

Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, and Keith moved as a unit towards Pidge's room, 615. Outside of the Atlantean's door, Keith froze momentarily. The scent let him know that a Galra had been here recently… and they'd been hunting.

After they'd entered the Atlantean's room and the door had shut, Lance noticed that Keith was incredibly tense.

"What is it, Keith?" Lance put a hand on the Galra's shoulder to calm him.

"I know what took Matt." Keith began as he clenched his fists in frustration. "It was another Galra."

"What would a Galra want with an Atlantean?" Hunk mused aloud.

Pidge was looking down at her phone in the next moment, furiously typing at her keyboard and scrolling through the information that was pulled up.

"How would a Galra even be able to get into the room without being let in?"

At Shiro's question, Pidge answered while she looked down at her phone. "Because the Galra probably had the keycard to get in." She looked up at the faces around her, "This hotel is owned by Zarkon, descendant of the Galrans who were first stationed on Earth centuries ago."

In the silence that followed, Hunk's, "Oh, shit." Was the first thing to break the silence.

"Hunk, didn't you say that the receptionist that first night was a Galra?" Lance asked warily.

"Oh, yeah. But I found out later that she wasn't even Galra at all. She was an Altean who'd apparently hooked up with the owner of the hotel years ago. I'm still not sure about the yellow eyes though." Hunk answered, not sure how he should be feeling about that information anymore. A thought occurred to him, "You don't think he's kidnapping people and doing experiments to make more Galra hybrids?"

"Why the fuck would he do that, Hunk? There's already more Galra hybrids than you can shake a stick at." Keith snapped.

Hunk shrugged condescendingly, "I don't know, you tell me, _Galra_."

"The fuck did you just say to me?" Keith took a menacing step toward Hunk before Lance intercepted him with hands on his lover's shoulders.

"Easy there, Keith." The merman turned to face the demigod, "Look, Hunk. Just because he's Galra doesn't mean he knows every single member of his species' agenda. Do you know all of the gods' agendas?"

Hunk looked down in shame, dark emotions flashing over his features, "No."

"Are you guys done now? Because, I'd like to find out what happened to my brother so I can find him before something awful happens. If you don't mind?" Pidge snarked.

Keith huffed and turned away from Hunk. Not apologizing for his actions, but signaling that he was done fighting.

"Sorry, Pidge." Lance and Hunk replied in unison.

Shiro tried to break the tense atmosphere, feeling weird because Lance had been the one to calm Keith down instead of him. "Okay, so she's an Altean who has yellow eyes. Is that a thing that can happen?"

"I might have a possible answer for that one." Pidge interjected, "While I was speaking with the Alteans about energy sources, we talked a bit about the differences in our people. Apparently, Alteans possess the ability to change their form in order to blend into their surroundings. They are able to match the features of the race they are trying to assimilate with."

"So?" Lance asked, a little lost on the significance of the information.

" _So,_ it means that Zarkon's…wife?" she guessed, "Is changing her features to match the Galra."

"Oh." Lance looked down in thought, "But this brings us back to the question of why they would kidnap an Atlantean?"

The group all looked around in thought.

"What would the Galras want in order to perfect their race?" Keith asked the air.

"What do you mean?" Pidge asked.

"Well, I'm pretty sure they kidnapped your brother for a reason. Atlanteans are known for being incredibly advanced. So I'm thinking, maybe they want information? But what information would matter to them the most?"

"Perfecting their race." Pidge finished.

Keith nodded. "Exactly."

"Well, as a Galra… no offense, but what abilities do you possess already?" Pidge asked.

Keith looked up in thought. Lance paid careful attention to the words about to come out of his mouth.

"I am only half-Galra, so I may not be the best to ask. But I can tell you that I have another form. I have a heightened sense of smell, night vision, retractable claws… I think that's it."

Lance looked down at his own claws before he remembered something Keith had left out, "Don't forget about those weird things on your tongue too."

Keith's face exploded with heat and the temperature around him rose a few degrees. "Lance!" he exclaimed, scandalized.

"How do _you_ know that, Lance?" Pidge asked.

"When we were sucking face earlier." Lance explained naively.

Keith slapped a hand over his eyes, but the flush over his cheeks was still visible. "What the actual fuck, Lance?"

"What?" Lance was confused at the other's hostility.

"It's called _kissing,_ you stupid fish!" the Galra berated.

"When the hell did you have time to do that…" Shiro paused, "You know what, never mind."

"Well, it could be called 'sucking face' actually. So, he's not wrong." Hunk answered helpfully.

" _See_ , Keith. It _can_ be called that."

"Can we please _not_ talk about this? He's like a brother to me." Was Pidge's complaint.

At the same time, Shiro was covering his ears with his eyes shut and humming quietly to himself.

Keith looked up hopefully at her words, "Yes, _please."_

"Oh, Pidge. I forgot to tell you! Keith is a potential life partner. So, we're testing it out."

Keith's curious, "Life partner?" was drowned out by Pidge's reply.

"Lance, if I didn't know you were a merman and that the topic of life partners is common among your people, that would have been the weirdest thing I've ever heard." She paused, "But, congratulations. Now, can we _please_ get back to finding my brother?"

"Right, sorry." The merman apologized.

"Okay." The Atlantean paused to remember their conversation before they'd been sidetracked, "So, the Galras sound like they've got pretty much everything they need for survival. In addition to the fact that they apparently breed like crazy."

Keith averted his eyes from everyone until Lance bumped his shoulder against the other's. The Galra found the merman looking at him flirtatiously as he waggled his eyebrows. He gently pushed the other's face away with a soft smile as the merman chuckled at him.

Shiro watched the interaction with a smile of his own.

"What else could they want?"

"Sounds like the only negative trait they have is that they aren't immortal. They _aren't_ immortal, are they?" Hunk turned towards Keith to confirm this information, the Galra shrugged his shoulders noncommittally.

"But how would an Atlantean help the Galras with that problem?" Pidge asked.

"Maybe they don't know that you guys aren't immortal?" At Lance's simple suggestion, the entire group turned to him. "What?"

"I think you're right, Lance." Pidge confessed, feeling a little stupid that she hadn't thought of that idea herself.

"So, what do we do?" Hunk asked.

"Do you think you can follow the trail, Keith?" Pidge asked as respectfully as she could.

"Honestly, I'm not _that_ good. I could identify it easily here because it was only your scents with the Galra one being the freshest other smell. But, I could try."

"That's all we ask of you, Keith." Shiro encouraged.

With a nod, Keith closed his eyes and changed forms. His pointed ears grew and migrated to the top of his head, a layer of lilac fur grew all over his body, and a short bobtail appeared behind him. When his eyes opened, they were now yellow where the white was supposed to be.

"Let's go." When Keith spoke, there was a flash of deadly fangs lurking at the corners of his mouth.

The group nodded and followed him outside of the room.

Keith sniffed the air and prowled around the hallway until he reached the elevator. He pressed the button and the group got on with him after an odd creature exited. It had curled horns on its head, the head of a frog, and the body of a lizard that walked upright.

Keith looked at the buttons but couldn't determine which exact one had been pressed.

"What's wrong?" Pidge asked.

"I don't know which floor." He confessed.

"Why not try all of them?" Lance offered. The group groaned, knowing they were going to be _those_ people, but Lance just looked confused as he pressed all of the buttons.

The elevator paused, like it wasn't sure if it wanted to embark on this absurd quest, before it slid closed.

They arrived on the fourth floor and Keith leaned out and sniffed before he retreated inside with a shake of his head.

This continued for all of the floors on their way up. Sometimes people would try to get on and they would shake their heads before explaining that the elevator would be stopping at every floor.

At the last floor, Keith leaned out and sniffed before he immediately retracted and covered his nose. "Oh, _fuck_!"

"What's wrong?" Shiro asked with concern.

"Something smells like _death_ in there."

The group froze, when the elevator dinged and began to close, Keith put his free arm out to stop it in a daze.

"It's probably not him, Pidge. He's only been gone for a few hours." Hunk reassured her.

"Y-yeah. Let's check it out, though. Someone else may have been taken." The young woman suggested.

The group nodded with each other in support before they left the elevator.

Keith kept his nose covered as he pointed to the right. Lance led the way as they walked down the hallway. At room 910, there was a terrible smell permeating the air that even Pidge could detect. Underneath the doors of the rooms the lights were off and Keith couldn't detect any other living thing's scent on this floor through the slightly filtered air he was inhaling.

Lance looked back at Keith who pointed further down the hall. With a nod, he continued all the way to room 915. Here, the stench was the strongest. Not having the keycard to go in, Keith turned to Shiro.

Taking a steadying breath, Shiro phased through the door. He immediately came back out.

"Well, I'm pretty sure _that_ isn't your brother." He joked hollowly.

"Let us in, Shiro." Keith demanded quietly. The two stared at each other challengingly before Shiro sighed and went back in. The door opened with a click and Lance pushed his way inside.

The sight that met them was, without a doubt, one of the most gruesome things they'd ever seen. Its body had been mangled beyond recognition. Its flesh had been skinned from its body and the organs had been ripped from its opened chest.

On the exposed muscle and tissue, the word 'Worthless' was carved on its forehead. Without its facial features, it was hard to see what the face had been. But if the frozen scream it was solidified in was any indication, they had died a horribly painful death.

The only indicator that it wasn't Matt were the decomposing wings splayed out behind the body.

Shiro and Keith looked on stonily as the rest tried not to be sick. Hunk recovered first and approached the corpse.

"Why'd they write worthless on them?"

"Maybe because they didn't grant the Galra immortality?" Shiro guessed.

Pidge gasped before she fell to her knees. Her hand covered her mouth as tears streamed down her face. "Matt." She whimpered brokenly.

Not knowing what to do for his friend, Lance knelt down and squeezed her shoulder. "We'll find him, Pidge. We won't let this happen to him."

With a final sniffle, Pidge recovered and stood confidently. Lance looked up from his position with a soft smile before Keith held out a hand to help him up. Accepting his offer, Lance used the other's strength to pull himself up.

"Let's get out of here. There's nothing we can do for them now." Shiro advised.

With an incredibly heavy feeling surrounding them, the group left the room. They pressed the button for the elevator and waited an obscenely long amount of time for it to arrive on their floor.

When the elevator gave its customary 'ding' at its arrival, the group filed inside. Since they were on the top floor, Lance pushed the buttons for the fifth and all lower floors. The ride down was quiet and melancholic.

At the fifth floor, Keith dutifully leaned out and sniffed the air before he went back in with a shake of his head.

This continued all the way down to the first floor. Keith peeked out and sniffed before he looked down in defeat. He turned and gave Pidge a pitiful shake of his head.

Putting a hand over her mouth to muffle her gasp, the young woman shut her eyes and tried not to cry.

"Maybe there's something we're missing?" Lance offered hopefully.

"And what exactly could we be _missing_ , Lance?" Pidge mocked angrily. "I _know_ we don't know anything, okay? Unless you _know_ something the rest of us don't, keep your mouth shut."

"Hey!" Keith interrupted, when it was clear Lance was too stunned to defend himself, "He was only trying to help. You don't need to vent your frustration on him."

"I know!" Pidge shouted angrily. The few hotel lobby occupants turned to investigate the outburst before they quickly averted their attention back to whatever they were looking at. "I know." Pidge said again quietly. "Sorry, Lance."

"I-it's okay. You're worried about your brother… I get it." Lance forgave her quickly and Pidge felt like even more of an ass for yelling at the merman.

"Let's go check the room again. Maybe we _did_ miss something." Pidge stated, knowing in her heart that they wouldn't find anything.

"Maybe we should ask about who was in room 915?" Hunk suggested.

"No, if the staff is in on it, they might try to get rid of the evidence." Shiro pointed out.

"We could ask other occupants if they've noticed anything weird." Lance suggested.

Keith turned to the merman with a smirk on his face, "You're just full of suggestions today, aren't you?"

"Was that one stupid too?" Lance asked worriedly.

Pidge placed a gentle hand on her friend's shoulder, "No, Lance. That sounds like a great idea."

Keith watched the interaction carefully before he unknowingly smiled.

"Alright, let's go." Hunk announced.

Because there were apparently no occupants on the ninth floor, Keith suggested they go to room 815 to see if they'd heard any strange sounds from the room above them.

When the group arrived at the door, they decided that Hunk should knock. He was the most human and the least intimidating of the group.

They waited a few moments before Keith reached forward and violently knocked again.

"Keith!" Pidge admonished. "What if they're too scared to answer now?"

"I don't hear any movement in there. They obviously have no intention of opening the door." Keith justified.

"What if they aren't in there?" Hunk asked.

"They're in there alright. I can smell them." The Galra explained before he sent Shiro a meaningful look.

"How do I always get roped into these things?" he complained as he phased through the door.

He was gone a few minutes before he came back, even paler than usual.

"Shiro, what's-"

"They're dead too." The ghost answered gravely.

"How bad is it?" Keith asked.

Shiro shook his head before he went back inside, the door clicked open a moment later.

The group entered cautiously behind him. The ghost floated to the bathroom and found an avian corpse in the tub portion of the shower/tub. Its feathers had been plucked, its eyes and other organs removed. It was floating in the water of the tub. On the shower wall behind it, in blood, read the word 'Worthless' again.

"Who's doing this shit?" Hunk asked with disgust.

Lance reached forward and picked the bird's corpse up and placed it on the ground.

"What the hell, Lance?" Keith scolded. "Now you've got your prints all over it!"

"Oh… sorry. It just didn't seem right to leave it in the water." The merman was obviously unsettled by the sight. A few moments after being placed on the ground, the corpse lit up in flames.

"Fuck!" Lance screeched as he was hurriedly pulled away from the fire by Keith.

In the next instant, only ashes remained on the floor.

"Oh no!" Lance cried, devastated. Thinking that this was all his fault.

The ash pile shifted and a small, featherless, alien-looking creature peeked out from the cinders.

"What _is_ that?" Lance asked, voice filled with awe.

"I… think it's a phoenix." Hunk guessed.

"Phoenix?" The merman prompted.

"A bird that is said to burst into flames when it dies and is reborn in the ashes." Hunk explained.

"How in the hell is that an _alien_?" Lance exclaimed.

Pidge shrugged. "If it could understand enough to come here, maybe it has some form of sentience."

"I guess…" Lance conceded.

While they were talking, the bird was beginning to grow rapidly. It was already completely feathered and was standing two feet tall, looking around it in confusion.

Keith watched with interest as his pupils dilated. No one else had noticed.

"So, it can never truly die?" Shiro asked.

"Apparently it can't turn into ash if its corpse is placed in water." Pidge pointed out.

"So how did they kill it in the first place?" Shiro mused.

"They drowned me." Came a child's voice from below them.

The group jumped away from the phoenix that was almost fully grown. Keith kept watching the bird as it twitched, restraining his baser instincts to grab at the feathers.

Shiro recovered first, "You can talk."

"Of course I can, foolish human!" the bird chastised. When Lance reached out to touch the bird's feathers the bird pecked at his hand and he quickly recoiled.

"Okay, so they drowned you. Is there anything else you remember?" Pidge asked hopeful of the possible new lead.

"Yes, but if you only knew what those memories were like," the bird shivered, "you wouldn't be asking me to relive them."

"Please! My brother has been taken. Can you tell us anything?"

The phoenix looked at the Atlantean in consideration. "I remember that they drugged me. Well, I remember feeling groggy before I blacked out. The next time I was conscious, I was in this tub being held down against my will. I assume they used something to knock me out."

That was a clue, but it wasn't nearly enough.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm getting the fuck out of here." The bird wobbled over to the door. "You might want to stand back." The phoenix advised before it burst into flames. The heat from its body allowed it to melt through the door.

"Well…" Shiro began.

"That was…" Hunk continued.

"…Different?" Pidge finished.

"Did you guys _see_ that? That bird was on _fire!_ " Lance exclaimed, and was promptly ignored.

With the bird gone, Keith fully regained control of himself. "Well, that was weird… we can keep searching?"

"Where to next?" Hunk asked.

"It seems to be going after people in rooms ending in fifteen… maybe those rooms?" Lance offered.

"Lance?" Pidge called, her face hidden behind the glare of her glasses.

"What?"

"I'm _really_ sorry I told you to shut your mouth earlier." At her confession, Lance smiled toothily and revealed his sharp serrated teeth as he chuckled proudly.

As they left the room, they noticed the outline of a bird through the sliding door to the balcony and the screen that prevented guests from falling.

The group stood outside of room 715, directly above where Matt went missing. Without bothering with knocking, Shiro disappeared through the door.

When he came back, he seemed a little relieved, "No body. But it doesn't look like they're here."

Pidge let out a sigh of relief. "Matt still has a chance."

"Wait a minute…" Keith interrupted. "This is room 715."

"Yes, Keith. We knew that when we came here… it was kind of the reason we chose _this_ room to investigate next." Pidge pointed out.

"Matt was in room 615."

Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, and Lance realized where Keith was going with his observations and began to feel a pit forming in their stomachs.

"Lance is in room 515."

Pidge and Hunk continued their investigation as Keith and Shiro went with Lance to grab some of the merman's stuff. They grabbed his clothes and on their way out, Lance snagged his pill bottle full of stones.

"You got everything?" Shiro asked and Lance nodded in reply, pill bottle in hand and clothes piled in his arms.

They went to Keith's room and set the merman's stuff down.

"So, what do we do now?" Lance asked warily.

"We wait for them to show up." Keith answered as he straightened out the piles of Lance's clothing on his couch. When there was enough room for him to sprawl comfortably he turned and sank into the sofa with a sigh.

"I hope you have a plan for when they do." As he said this, Shiro floated closer to the couch-hogging Galra.

"Oh, I do." Keith shut his eyes confidently. "You're going to follow them and lead us back to where they come from."

"Are you serious right now? Keith, they aren't going to leave without a fight and probably not without Lance. Why can't you guys just pack up and leave?"

"What about Matt?" Lance asked, upset that Shiro would just leave him to rot.

Shiro paused, "I'd stay and help with the investigation. Please, Keith. Can you just… _not_ do this right now?"

"Do what?" Keith challenged.

"Jeopardize your life!" Keith's face remained nonplussed before Shiro added, "Not only yours, but Lance's too!"

Keith's eyes wavered as they flicked over to the merman, who watched them argue anxiously.

Catching the moment of weakness, Shiro pressed his advantage. "It's not worth it if they kill you and take him anyway. With you dead, there'd be no chance for Hunk and Pidge to get him back." The ghost finished quietly.

With a groan of defeated aggravation, Keith stood and walked into his room to search for his bag.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Keith and Shiro's gazes snapped to the merman, who didn't cower under the weight of their stares.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Lance, Shiro's right. The best thing we can do is leave."

"No!" Lance pouted as he crossed his arms and plopped down on the now empty couch.

There was a long tense moment that passed.

"Shiro, can you give us a moment?" Keith asked quietly.

Looking unsure, the ghost nodded and disappeared.

The Galra walked over to Lance and stood in front of him. Lance refused to look at him as he turned his head to face the sliding door that led to the balcony.

The couch cushions dipped as Keith straddled Lance's lap and caged the merman's head between his arms as he rested his hands on the back of the couch.

He leaned close enough that his lips brushed against Lance's ear, "Please, Lance."

Lance groaned quietly before, "I said no."

Keith leaned back and stared at the merman's profile, when he looked at the other's eye he noticed he had very short eyelashes.

He must have said something out loud because Lance responded grumpily, "It's to limit the amount of drag in the water. If you'll notice, I hardly have any hair on my body. Unlike _some_ people."

Keith chuckled before he sat on the other's lap. "Lance, look at me."

Lance argued internally for a few seconds before he turned to look at the Galra. The second they locked eyes, Keith leaned forward and slid his lips along the other's tentatively.

The merman stiffened at first before, with a huff, he reciprocated the kiss. Lance took the lead and licked along the seam of the Galra's lips. Without hesitation, Keith granted him entrance before they began to investigate each other's mouth.

At the sensation, Lance let out a few moans which were echoed by Keith. Being careful of his claws, Lance gently gripped the back of the other's hair. He playfully nipped at Keith's bottom lip before he escaped the kiss to move onto the other's neck.

"We're not leaving." Lance challenged as he nuzzled the sensitive flesh there.

"It's not safe for you here." Keith argued.

In retaliation, Lance used his grip on the other's hair and pulled his head back to expose the Galra's neck.

"Hey!" Keith complained as he felt an unexpected thrill course through him at the dominant display.

He'd barely gotten the word out before Lance was attacking his neck with kisses, licks, and nibbles everywhere he could reach. Apparently, Lance was a fast learner.

The Galra felt a hand grip his waist possessively before he felt Lance subconsciously thrust against him in his seated position.

Not going down without a fight even though he couldn't face his opponent, Keith slid his hands to Lance's shoulder, up his neck, and over his face. He'd almost found the merman's nose before he found himself pressed into the couch, his arms trapped between his body and Lance's toned thighs.

Lance was glaring down at him playfully, "None of that." He scolded mildly before he leaned forward and nuzzled Keith's neck again, "That's cheating."

"Like this isn't?" Keith grouched.

"Well, that's because _you_ want to do something I don't want to do." Lance responded simply.

"It's only because I care about you!" Keith realized he was beginning to sound like Shiro and felt bad for all the times he'd ignored the other's advice.

"I care about you too, Keith." Lance leaned up and kissed the other soundly on the lips. "But I also care about Matt and Pidge."

Keith stared into Lance's blue orbs. He felt a swell of an indescribably powerful emotion fill his entire being. He realized, in that moment, he'd give this little shit in front of him the world if he'd asked.

With a sigh of defeat, Keith turned his head to face the couch. _"Fine_."

He felt his cheek and neck peppered with kisses as the other showered him with affection.

"I _knew_ you'd see things my way." The merman cheered.

"Yeah, yeah. Now get off of me." Keith griped.

"Are you guys finished now?" Shiro asked as he reappeared, looking away from the two young men tangled on the couch.

"Shiro!" Keith screeched in embarrassment. "Why the fuck did you not let us know you were there the whole time?"

The ghost shrugged, "I was going to leave if it got any more graphic, but I didn't think it wise to just leave you two unattended."

"Keith, are you okay? Your face is turning really red." Lance worried as he felt the Galra's incredibly warm face.

"He's just embarrassed, Lance." Shiro explained, his own ghostly cheeks tinted pink at the scene he'd witnessed.

"Of what?"

Keith stared at Lance in disbelief. "Shiro just saw us being… intimate. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Well, we weren't even mating so I don't see the issue. I mean, my people have an entire season where many different life partners swim in large groups and have sex. Usually a couple will branch off for some privacy, but there are others who do it while inside of the group." Lance explained. "I've never done it. But my dad explained what my future would be like once I found a life partner when I became sexually mature enough to mate."

Hearing the key word, Keith perked up curiously, ignoring the mixed feelings he had about Lance possibly liking being watched while they were intimate. "You mentioned life partner earlier. What did you mean that I was possibly one of them?"

Lance felt his cheeks heat up a little, forgetting that he never explained how significant it was that he was pursuing this relationship with Keith.

"We merfolk have always chosen a single partner that we procreate with. We stay together for our entire lives, even if one of them dies, the surviving partner never finds another one."

"And you think I could be that for you?" Keith asked cautiously.

"Keith… I think you _are_ that for me." Lance confessed seriously. His blue eyes swirling with emotion as he seemingly stared into Keith's soul.

Keith felt his heart skip without his permission. The weight of the merman's confession rested on his shoulders. He knew he was falling for Lance, and he was falling hard and fast. He recognized in the back of his mind that he'd only known the other for a few days, but… there was something there. He'd _never_ felt this way for anyone before and he didn't think he ever would.

"Lance… I-" Keith paused, "I don't want to rush this. If, after all of this madness settles down, we still feel like this… I'd like to show you my home. You can make your choice after that."

Lance felt like his face was going to split if he smiled any wider. "Sounds great!"

Lance was happily humming to himself as he snuggled into Keith's chest for the past half hour, while Shiro stared meaningfully at the younger man underneath his partner.

From the room beside them, they heard the door click open. Keith sat up with Lance in his lap and wrapped his arms protectively around the other's head and back. Lance tensed in his arms and tried to listen through the thin walls for activity.

Keith listened intently for any other sounds, but it was quiet. The Galra sent Shiro a look, and the ghost nodded as he floated upwards and phased his head through the wall. He looked around for a few seconds before he pulled his head back with a confused expression.

Keith raised an eyebrow in question and Shiro shook his head and shrugged. A moment passed after their exchange and then all hell broke loose.

The door to Keith's room flew open and in the doorway stood Lotor. They almost didn't get the chance to recognize him because he immediately disappeared into a flurry of movement.

Keith shoved Lance away from him and pulled a hidden blade from between the cushions of the couch. Just in time to parry Lotor's own blade from reaching his neck.

"Not as inexperienced as I'd imagined." Lotor mused to himself before he sprang away from the younger Galra. Lance was standing with his back to the wall, prepared to jump in when the intruder was distracted.

"Yeah, too bad for you." Keith growled before he readjusted his blade for a better grip. "You're _not_ getting him."

"Now, now." The lilac man admonished. "We Galra must share the gift of immortality amongst ourselves. You shouldn't be so stingy."

The room's other three occupants tensed at the insinuation.

The intruder continued, "Honestly, I wanted to whisk you away back at the convention. It would have been perfect. No one would have noticed you were gone before it was too late." Lotor sighed wistfully, "But I guess it just wasn't meant to be that day."

"Are you done yet?" Lance interrupted the other, trying to let him know that he wasn't going to let this man scare him.

Lotor laughed, "Yes. I suppose it _is_ time to get this over with."

"Bring it" Keith challenged.

Lotor charged forward and met Keith's blade with his own. This time, however, he also swiped a clawed hand underneath to Keith's abdomen. Barely seeing the attack, Keith contorted his stomach away from the other.

As soon as Keith evaded the attack, he felt a blow to his head. Stunned, he fell back and clenched his forehead where the other had headbutted him. He opened his eyes to see Lance tackle the larger Galra.

The merman kept the other's arms pinned for two seconds before he was thrown off. Lotor turned to deliver a blow in retaliation, but had to block Keith's attack from behind him.

"I _really_ wish I had a weapon right now." Lance whined from his position on the ground.

"I wish I could _do_ anything." Shiro lamented.

"Why not distract him?" Lance offered as he stood and dusted off his arms.

Shiro felt incredibly dumb when he realized his ability to not touch objects unless he focused, was an incredible asset. He flew between the two and blocked Lotor's vision.

Trying to see past the phantom and prepare for his enemy's next attack, Lotor failed to hear the merman's approach from behind.

"Now, Keith!" Hearing the voice behind him, Lotor whipped around to block his attacker only to find the merman standing there with a smirk. In the next instant, Lotor felt pain blossom from his back.

Truly angered, Lotor whirled on the younger Galra and backhanded him hard enough that Keith was knocked a few feet away.

"Enough games. I'm ending this now!" His hair in disarray, he walked through Shiro towards Lance.

Sensing the danger level increase, Lance turned and ran for the door. He'd just clasped the handle when he was grabbed from behind. His arms pinned at his sides, Lance kicked wildly as he demanded to be let go.

Keith sat up slowly as he recovered his senses from the blow. "Let him go."

Lotor smirked at the young Galra, "Not a chance."

With that, Lance was gone. Shiro floated over to his friend in concern, but was waved away.

"What are you doing, you idiot? Follow them!"

Shiro disappeared from sight before he flew out of the room to follow Lotor with his struggling captive. It seemed none of the other hotel's occupants were going to interfere with this argument. They remained in their rooms. Hunk might have investigated, but he was out investigating with Pidge.

The pair got on the empty elevator. Keith's room door opened, and Keith came running down the hallway in his Galra form. He'd just reached the elevator when the doors slid shut.

Inside, Lotor smirked as Lance cried out for Keith. Shiro watch invisibly as Lotor pressed a series of buttons on the elevator panel. When he was finished, the lights began to pulse in odd patterns before the elevator dinged three times.

Lotor continued to effortlessly restrain the merman in his arms and didn't seem to mind his constant insults and cries for help.

The elevator reached its destination after a short while. When the doors opened, Shiro found an entire lab hidden underground. There were Galra everywhere, milling about and inspecting the various projects.

At Lotor's entrance, everyone turned their attention to the man he was carrying.

"I present to you… the future of Galras!" At his words, the Galras clapped politely in commendation.

"Bring him over here, Lotor, before he managed to escape." Snapped the receptionist that had greeted him a few nights ago.

Lance took it back, she was _not_ a nice lady. Shiro had seen enough, he flew up through the ceiling to find Keith along with reinforcements.

Lance found himself strapped to a table. Terror coursed through him, unbidden. He didn't want to end up like those other corpses he'd seen… but he _really_ didn't want to be eaten either.

"So, Lance." The merman snapped his attention toward Lotor. "I'm just curious… but were you _with_ that little kitten?"

"We were talking about it." Lance joked with false bravery. "Thanks for interrupting."

Lotor laughed. "Let me ask you this: How long do the merfolk live?"

This was it. The choice between being carved up and deemed 'Worthless' or being eaten depended on Lance's next words. Deciding to be honest and deal with the consequences, Lance answered.

"We typically don't start showing signs of aging until we reach one hundred whale migrations…er, _years_. Some of the mercouncil are over five hundred."

Lotor nodded at his words. "And would you like to know how long we Galra live for?"

"Not particularly, no." Lance snapped.

"Lance, I'm surprised. Don't you want to know how long you would get to be with that little kitten?"

Feeling unsure, Lance looked away. His face said it all, he _did_ want to know. "How long?"

"The oldest recorded Galra on Earth, died at the age of eighty. A withered husk of what he formerly was."

Lance felt his stomach drop. Here he'd been thinking that maybe his partnership with Keith was so bad because he wouldn't get to see his family as often. Now he realized he'd live ages alone. Long after, when he would no longer own anything that would remind him of Keith. He felt his eyes well up with water at the lonely feeling that consumed him.

"That's why this is so important, Lance. Don't you want to be with him for as long as you can?"

Lance nodded, falling for Lotor's silver tongue.

"Then help us. Tell us the secret of immortality."

Lance gulped. He was fairly sure Lotor already knew what he was going to say. The Galra was probably just sadistic enough to want Lance to ask for his already sentenced fate. He opened his mouth to answer, 'his own flesh and blood', but he was interrupted by a large explosion at the entrance of the lab.

In came Keith, Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, the Alteans, and several other intimidating creatures behind them.

"By order of Voltron and the Galactic Alliance, you are to cease this operation at once." Came Allura's booming voice.

"Keith! You guys!" Lance called happily at the sight his friends.

Lotor growled in Lance's ear lowly, "I'll be seeing you later." With that, he flipped a switch on the wall and shouted for the Galras to scatter.

A heavy mist began to fill the room, in the turmoil Lotor and the receptionist lady escaped along with many of the Galras.

"Halt!" Allura orderd before she turned to her allies. "Don't let a single one escape!"

Lance struggled from his trapped position on the table. He wasn't freed until Keith found him and undid the merman's restraints.

Before Lance could say anything, Keith embraced him shakily. Lance was stunned for a moment before he returned the gesture. He felt the other's arms tighten before Keith released him with an unsteady sigh.

"I thought I'd- that you would be-" Keith's thoughts were so full of images of the merman ending up like those other corpses, that he didn't dare speak them into existence.

"But I wasn't. You guys saved me." Lance soothed as he stroked the other's hair. Lotor's words ringing through his head. _Eighty years_. That seemed so short compared to the long life Lance expected ahead of him.

"Lance?" The merman met Keith's concerned gaze. "Let's get out of here."

Lance nodded as Keith helped him up.

Shiro was floating around during their conversation looking for Matt. When he found him, the Atlantean was not in good shape.

When Pidge noticed who he was hovering over she cried out with alarm, "Matt!"

The older Atlantean was too badly damaged to hear his sister calling for him. It was clear that the Galra had been running experiments on him during the time period he'd been missing. He was bruised and cut up all over his body. It was probably a blessing that he was unconscious for the moment, so he wouldn't have to endure the pain.

Allura approached the Atlanteans when the captured Galra were secured and under guard.

She placed her hands on various places of the boy's body before she straightened and ordered someone to place Matt in one of the healing pods on her ship.

She went over to inspect Lance but he waved away her concern and watched as Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro followed after the people transporting Matt. He wanted to go with them, but he knew he needed to inform them of Lotor's agenda and that the receptionist lady was in on it.

Allura marched over to the cluster of captured Galras. She stood menacingly in front of their knelt forms, before she began to pace back and forth. "You have committed an offense against the Galactic Alliance, statute number 5, section 10, subsection 3, which states: 'Sentient lifeforms are not to experiment on other sentient beings, barring extenuating circumstances in which a unanimous approval has been provided by the High Council.'

"How do you plea?" She finished, standing in front of them again.

Many of the Galras lowered their head and admitted their guilt. Others remained stoic and glaring at the Altean.

"Load them up!" She barked before she turned and began to leave, "We're cutting the convention short this year."

Seeing his chance, Lance trotted closer to the princess. "Allura!"

He crashed into a large muscular chest before he could get close to her.

"That is Her Majesty, Princess Allura of planet Altea, to you." The guard growled.

"It's fine, Hugor." The guard stepped aside to reveal the Altean woman. "You're that merman from the speech." She recalled.

Lance nodded, "There were some more Galra who got away. A guy named Lotor and the receptionist lady who was also an…" he turned to Keith for confirmation, "Altean?" Keith nodded in agreement and Lance felt reassured.

"Oh?" Allura paused, "Was there anything else you were able to discover? I'm afraid we didn't get all of the details. We heard about evil, kidnapping Galras and came running." She finished with a laugh. Keith tensed and Lance shuffled closer to him.

"Well, we think that the owner of this hotel was in on the operation as well. But we never got any concrete evidence." Lance rubbed at the back of his head self-consciously.

"We'll launch an investigation. Right now, we need to take care of the ones we have and patch up that Atlantean boy."

Lance paused before he looked back at Keith. Steeling himself, he asked, "What are you going to do with them?"

"I was planning on getting permission from the High Council to let me begin that project I mentioned at the speech." She admitted. The Galras were filed into the elevator a few at a time to be incarcerated on the Altean's ship.

"The one about sterilizing them?" Lance asked with no small amount of horror.

"What?" Keith's voice cracked. Lance gripped the Galra's hand to calm him.

"It's hardly the end of the universe if a handful of Galras are prevented from having children. Honestly, it might even be beneficial for all lifeforms." She chided, obviously done with the conversation, as she turned to leave.

"You can't just-"

"Keith!" Lance interrupted him. "It's okay."

The merman called after the retreating princess, "Why not find other methods to deter the Galras overpopulation. You said yourself, they're sentient lifeforms. Shouldn't you focus on educating them on the negative aspects of overpopulation, rather than punishing them for simply following their instincts?"

Allura paused and thought about what he'd said. She turned back to Lance and looked at him critically for a long moment. With a promising nod, she turned and continued her retreat. "I'll think on your words, merman."

Lance and Keith met up with the other three members of their group to check on Matt's condition. Pidge was managing to keep herself calm as her brother stood in the healing chamber. Hunk looked like he wanted to offer her some modicum of comfort, but wasn't too sure about how to provide it.

Lance walked over to his friend and placed a gentle hand of support on her shoulder. "We got him. He wasn't-"

Pidge turned and clutched at her friend's shirt. "They're going to bring him with them on their trip to Altea." Lance gave her a firm hug before she continued, "Coran said that he'd be fully healed by the time they came back to resume their investigation."

"That's great news, Pidge."

The young woman shook her head before she looked up into Lance's eyes, "They'll be gone for an entire year at least."

The merman looked at his friend with empathy. The Atlanteans were a close-knit society. Everyone was connected to each other and they all would feel the loss of Matt's temporary disappearance.

"Hey, at least he's coming back. That's good, right?" Lance tried.

"I'll miss him." Pidge whimpered pitifully.

The group watched Matt's sleeping face, unable to fathom what unspeakable tortures he'd endured.

The small group of friends stood a safe distance away from the Altean ship to not be burned from the lift off. Pidge had managed to calm herself down and was waiting to see how the ship would manage lift-off, Hunk was standing next to Shay ready to depart on their date after the Alteans left, and Shiro floated behind Keith and Lance, who were holding hands as they waited.

The hotel was being evacuated and closed down for investigation when the Alteans returned next year. Lance had his meager belongings in a bag Keith had bought him slung over the Galra's motorcycle. Everyone else was packed up and ready to return home shortly afterwards as well.

"It's starting!" Pidge called in excitement.

The group watched as the ship began to whir to life. A high-pitched noise emanated from it as the blasters readied for lift-off. With an almost deafening growl, there was an explosion of fire underneath the ship. It climbed higher for a few seconds before the entire ship disappeared.

"Holy _fuck!"_ Pidge exclaimed.

"What is it?" Hunk asked worriedly.

"Why the fuck didn't I ask the _aliens_ about invisibility devices?"

The group shared a laugh at her expense. Having nothing left to see, the group dispersed.

"So, you're going off with Keith." Pidge remarked.

"Yeah… I'm really thinking he's the one." Lance answered as he turned back to Keith, squeezing the other's hand.

"You're so cheesy." Pidge complained.

"How am I cheesy?" Lance asked as he looked down at himself for any gooey substances he didn't notice.

Pidge and Keith laughed at him while Shiro watched with a smile.

"Take care of yourself, Lance." Pidge demanded gently.

"You got it!" Lance mock saluted.

With their final goodbyes, the group went their separate ways.

Lance and Keith's hands connected the entire time.


	4. Lance Moves In

"You… want me to get on that?" Lance looked skeptically at the odd machine known as a motorcycle.

"For the last time… _yes_." Keith reassured him for the sixth time. Their small amount of luggage was under the seat compartment. Keith only had the one helmet and had graciously decided to give it to Lance for their journey.

"Lance, it's fine." Shiro attempted to placate him as well. "Keith uses this to get around everywhere. Trust me, I didn't like it either at first, but Keith has proven to be an excellent driver."

Keith's face warmed at the praise. "See? Shiro says it's fine too. Now," he shoved the helmet on Lance's head as gently as he could but still heard a yelp of pain, "Get. On. The. Bike."

Lance readjusted his helmet with a pout. " _Fine_."

Keith's exasperated, "Finally _."_ Was met with an angry glare from the merman.

Lance swung a leg over the vehicle and settled in behind Keith. He admired the smell coming from the man in front of him. He had no way to describe it, having lived under the ocean for almost his entire life. There was the smell of the hotel soaps mingled with something underneath.

"Are you going to wrap your arms around me, or what?" he heard Keith snap from in front of him.

He gladly embraced the other from behind, "Like this?"

Keith startled before he grabbed Lance's arms and wrapped them more securely around his waist. "Like this." He corrected. "Now hold on tight." He said right before he turned on the ignition.

"O-" the motorcycle lurched forward as gently as Keith could manage, "Kay!" Lance finished with a scream.

Keith laughed as he enjoyed the wind ruffling his hair and Lance's warm arms wrapped around his waist. He felt the slightest prick of claws and reached down to pat Lance's arm.

Realizing what he was doing, Lance loosened his grip just enough that his claws weren't digging into Keith so that the other would put _both_ hands back on the steering bar.

Keith had to squint through the wind and blink often so that his eyes wouldn't dry out too bad. It barely worked, but it would have to do for the next few hours he would be driving.

He felt the warmth of Lance's helmet lift from his back and send a shiver down his spine at the sudden chill.

Lance watched the scenery whip past them. There were several cars on the road crowding around them, each with humans inside. Keith's presence made him feel safe from the humans surrounding them.

Having nothing better to do, Lance wondered if this is what it felt like to fly. If so, he questioned why anyone would choose to get a car over this.

Keith pulled over and parked in front of a diner. They'd been driving for hours and Lance was beginning to squirm so much that the motorcycle was getting difficult to manage. Keith locked the kickstand into place and gracefully swung his leg over to stand beside his bike. Lance was too busy trying to pull the helmet off without falling from his seat to notice Keith trying to recover the moisture missing from his eyes.

Lance managed to pull the protective plastic off of his head in order to give it to Keith, who took it with a laugh before he hung it on one of the motorcycle's handles. Lance's brow furrowed with confusion as Keith stepped closer to him. Lance could feel the warmth of the bike under him and the heat radiating from Keith's thighs as the Galra smoothed his helmet hair with a fond smile on his face.

"Let's walk around and give our asses a break." Keith offered as he stepped away to allow Lance to finally stand.

After a bit of struggling, the merman managed to stand with shaky legs. He stomped his feet for a bit before he took a few steps. Deeming himself ready, Lance turned to Keith. "Well, are we going to walk around or not?"

Keith shook his head with a huff before shoving his keys into his pocket and following Lance. The diner they had stopped at was a few hours' drive from Keith's house. There was a small commercial area they would pass on the way there, where Keith would do his shopping for essentials.

He had no qualms about being around humans, but he didn't particularly like them either. This made it easy for him to do odd jobs around the area in order to buy things like gasoline, food stuffs, and other items.

Thinking of food, "Lance, d'you want to get something to eat before we head out? I don't really have much back at the house."

"No, I ate this morning. I should be good until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Keith cried with alarm. Questioning exactly how Lance fended for himself.

"Well yeah. If I don't do much, I only need to eat once a day." A thought occurred to Lance, "How often do you eat?"

"Well I try to eat two big meals a day, but sometimes I end up only eating a snack in the morning."

"A snack?"

"Like some crackers, a granola bar… snacks." Keith struggled to find a way to explain to Lance that he probably needed more than a single meal per day.

"Oh." Lance paused, "What do you eat for your big meals?" He was growing concerned for Keith's lack of nutrition.

"Uh, usually what I can find in the desert. A rabbit, a bird, some lizards, I ate a snake a few times."

"Yeah, but where's the fish?"

"Fish?"

"Yeah…fish. I know humans eat them." Lance gasped and stepped closer to Keith with worry etched on his face. "Don't tell me you haven't been eating any fish. How have you survived? You poor thing, you must be so malnourished."

"Why the hell would I be malnourished? I eat a relatively balanced diet, Mr. One-Meal-A-Day."

"You say balanced… but where's the fish?"

"I feel like we're talking in circles, Lance." Keith complained.

Lance looked confused, "No we're not. We're both standing still. Keith, I think your poor diet is getting to you."

The Galra sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well, _I'm_ hungry after all this talk of food. Are you going to join me, or not?"

"I'm not going to let you walk into a human establishment alone, don't worry about that Keith. But I will _not_ be eating any of this garbage."

"Suit yourself?"

"What does that even _mean_? You know what… never mind. You say strange human colloquialisms and I accept that about you. Because I love you."

"You know, Lance. I find it strange that you know the word 'colloquialism' and yet you can't grasp what these 'strange sayings' mean." Keith said with a slight blush at Lance's easy confession.

Lance shrugged as he eyed the humans inside of the diner. With another sigh, Keith opened the door to go in. A little bell went off and one of the waitresses called from the back, "I'll be with you in a jiffy."

Lance leaned in closer before whispering, "How long _is_ a jiffy?"

Keith didn't even get to open his mouth to reply before a young woman approached them. "Is it just you two today?"

Keith nodded in response. The young woman's smile grew slightly, "Will that be a table or a booth?"

"Booth please." Keith answered without hesitation. He'd always preferred the higher level of anonymity that came with sitting in a booth. Tables were just too… out in the open.

"Right this way." She led them to a small booth towards the back of the diner.

Keith sat down in the booth and Lance began to slide in next to him. " _Lance_ , sit over there." Keith gestured to the seat across from him with bemusement.

"Oh… sorry." As Lance settled on the other side of the booth the woman smiled brightly at the scene.

"Today your server will be Kerri. He'll be over here to take your order in a bit. 'Til then, what can I get you two to drink?"

Keith ordered first, "Water would be nice."

Nodding, the woman turned to Lance, "And for you, sugar?"

"Oh, my name's Lance. And I guess I could get some water too."

The woman giggled and Keith felt a surge of jealousy course through him. He cleared his throat and the woman, whose nametag read Jane, shot him an unimpressed look before she left to go get their drinks.

"She seemed nice." Lance commented as his eyes followed her departure closely.

Keith shrugged stiffly as he looked down. Not wanting to see Lance drooling all over the young woman.

"Keith?" The Galra looked up as Lance called his name, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." Keith answered as he looked away.

The woman came back and set down two glasses of iced water, a lemon wedge in each, and two menus. With a smile, she left the two of them alone once more.

The silence grew heavier. Lance was sure that something had upset Keith, he just couldn't figure out what.

A young man approached their table next, he had a pen and notebook in hand. "Hey, folks. My name's Kerri and I'll be taking care of you today. Were you interested in getting any appetizers?"

Still a little sulky about the young woman fawning over Lance, Keith forced himself to be polite to the new server. "No, we're fine. Could I just get a sandwich?"

The man smiled brightly as he focused on Keith, "Of course you can! What kind of sandwich are you in the mood for? The 'Breakfast Combo Bash' or something more like the "Sub of the Spicy Italians'?"

"Can't I just get two pieces of bread with some lunch meat and a piece of cheese?" Keith griped.

Kerri laughed good-naturedly, "I'm afraid I don't make the rules. It sounds like you want something like the 'Firehouse Club'."

"Okay, then I'll have that." Keith relented and gathered the menus to hand back to the server.

"And what will you have for sides?"

Keith sighed and muttered, "Why do things have to be so complicated?"

The server gave a sigh of his own, "I'm right there with you, buddy. But we gotta do what we gotta do, ya know?"

"Yeah, yeah. Can I just order fries?"

"You most certainly can." He finished jotting down Keith's order before he turned to Lance. "And what can I for you today?"

"I don't want anything." Lance replied, his eyes narrowed with disdain at Kerri.

"Are you sure? Not even a salad?" Kerri offered.

"No, _Kerri_. Not even a salad. Now go get Keith his food." Lance snapped. Keith looked at him oddly.

"Wow, okay. There's no need to be so mean." Kerri snapped his notebook shut. "If you don't want anything, _fine_." He turned back to Keith with a pleasant smile, "I'll be back with your order shortly."

Keith nodded in understanding and Kerri left.

"What the hell was that?" Keith snapped.

"I didn't like the way he was looking at you. It's obvious that we're together and yet he had the gall to try and express his interest in you… I didn't like it." Lance confessed, looking more upset as he went on. "You're _mine_. And he can't have you." He reached out and covered Keith's hands with his own.

"Lance, he was just being _nice_. Besides… _you_ were the one eyeing that girl earlier so you don't really have any room to talk." Keith accused.

"Eyeing that… Keith, I was making sure she wasn't trying to express interest in you."

"Didn't seem that way to me." Keith argued as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Keith… I'll forgive your ignorance because you don't know anything about the merfolk. We haven't exactly mated yet. I was only trying to scare away competition and show them that I already claimed you."

"What does mating have to do with anything?"

"Keith, right now we are technically only _potential_ life-partners. Until we mate that bond is open for someone else to come in. I know you aren't bound by it, like I am, so I'm feeling especially anxious around people who try and talk to you." Lance took a breath to calm down. "If that bothers you, I will _try_ to keep my feelings to myself."

"Lance… I-" Keith was interrupted by Kerri's return.

"Here you are, sir." The server set down Keith's order.

Lance swallowed the urge to flash his serrated teeth at the other in warning, and took a steadying breath. "Kerri, I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier."

The server turned, a little startled by the customer's sudden apology. Willing to put the earlier argument behind him, Kerri gave a peace offering, "It's fine, sir. Thank you for apologizing. Not many folks would do that." Kerri gave him a measured look before he smiled brightly at him, "Are you _sure_ there's nothing I can get for you to eat?"

Feeling a little bad that he'd allowed himself to misjudge the young man in front of him, Lance shared a look with Keith. The Galra shrugged and bit into his sandwich.

"Um, is there any fish here?"

Kerri looked up in thought, "Well, we do have one or two things. There's the 'Twenty Thousand Leagues of Deliciousness' though it's more of a fish sandwich with a million different sauces slathered on top. We also have 'Fish and Chips', a seasonal favorite when the northeasterners come here, for reasons unknown to me. Arizona is the worst for those folks. They come here and cook like lobsters every year." Kerri chuckled. "So, what'll it be?" he asked as he whipped out his notepad and pen again.

"Could I get the Fish and Chips, I guess. Just don't let the chips get all over the fish, okay?"

Kerri laughed, "You got it!" He walked away a lot more chipper than the first time.

Keith continued to scarf down his sandwich and fries during the conversation and was halfway finished. When Lance looked at him, he raised a single brow and the message was clear.

 _'_ _See, was that so bad?'_

 _No,_ Lance decided, _it wasn't._

"What are chips?" the merman asked.

"I'm pretty sure it's just another name for fries."

Lance looked down at these so-called 'fries' on Keith's plate. "Could I… could I try one?"

Smiling, Keith picked a fry up and offered it to Lance. The merman took it carefully and inspected it closely.

He sniffed it before he took a hesitant bite. His eyes immediately widened. "Holy shit."

"What?" Keith's concern was ignored by Lance in favor of gulping down some water.

"I live in the ocean, but that fry was the saltiest thing I've ever tasted." He took another sip from his glass before he looked at Keith with horror. "And you're just… _eating_ them like it's nothing. You haven't even had any of your water!"

Keith shrugged before he shoved an entire fry in his mouth and ate it pointedly. Lance was spared for a moment with Kerri's return.

"Here you go! I made sure they kept the fish away from the other stuff."

"Thank you!" Lance gave the man such a look of gratitude that Kerri felt a slight flush over his cheeks.

"I-it's fine. Glad you're feeling better." He looked between Keith and Lance. "You two enjoy your meals, I'll be back to check on you in a bit." And Kerri was gone again.

Lance turned his attention to his food. He looked between the large 'fries' that dwarfed Keith's own and the triangular shapes next to them.

"Where's the fish?"

Keith reached over and pointed at the triangles. His mouth busy chewing on the last of his fries.

" _This_ is what you call fish?" Lance asked with mounting horror. Feeling bad for the humans who never knew the joy of fish.

"Lance, it's fine. Just try it."

Lance gave the Galra a dirty look before he picked up one of the 'fish' triangles. Steeling himself he took a bite. Other than the gross outer covering, inside it was clearly fish. It didn't have much flavor, but it was certainly better than those salty fries.

Picking off the crust, Lance began to slowly make his way through his meal. Kerri came back a few times to make sure their drinks were filled and everything was to their satisfaction.

Keith watched the other as he ate. Admiring the view and shuddering any time Lance's teeth would flash as he ate. He was all too aware of the damage those serrated edges could do to someone's flesh… and yet he was inexplicably drawn to them. Much the same way he was about all sharp and deadly things, he supposed.

Lance eventually finished his fish as Keith ate the fries that came with it as he continued to watch the merman.

Almost like he could sense it, Kerri appeared at their table. "So, how was everything?"

"It was filling." Lance answered honestly.

"I'm… glad? So, I guess you two don't want any dessert?"

"No, thank you. Can we just get the bill?"

"Of course. Are y'all together?"

Before Keith could reply, Lance answered suspiciously. "Of course we're together! See, Keith. I told you he was trying to-"

" _Lance!_ He was talking about our orders." Keith admonished.

"What?" Lance felt the fight leave him in a rush.

"He was talking about how we were going to pay for our meals. If we would each be paying for our own or if only one of us would be paying." Keith explained. A smile tugging at his lips.

"O-oh." Lance looked down. Suddenly embarrassed by his outburst. "Sorry, Kerri." The merman looked at Keith, "I can't pay, though."

"I know, Lance. It's fine." Keith smiled softly at him before turning to the server, who was just watching quietly. "Together." He answered even though it was obvious.

"All right, I'll give you the bill after I take care of your plates." He stacked their plates, Lance shyly pushed his closer to the server, before he left to ring up their order.

Keith stared at Lance as the other looked down stubbornly.

"Lance…"

"I _said_ I was _sorry_." Lance defended as he squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists. "I know that was stupid of me. I thought…" Lance sighed, "But I was wrong… _again._ I know I'm just a dumb fish to you." He finally looked up and Keith was struck by the vibrant shade of blue they were, "But I'm _really_ trying. I promise."

Keith placed a gentle hand over Lance's clenched fist. "It's okay, Lance. If anything, that was the funniest shit I've ever seen."

Lance looked hopeful, "You're really not mad?"

"No! Why would I be mad?"

"You looked so upset when I was mean to Kerri before. I thought you were mad again…" he looked down at their hands and whispered, "I don't want you to be mad at me."

"Lance, I'm _not_ mad. If I was I'd tell you about it."

"Really? Because earlier when you were angry that I'd apparently been looking at that woman you were mad, but you didn't say anything."

"That was because I knew it was only me being jealous. I know that you aren't going to leave me for some random woman." Keith looked a little unsure. "Right?"

Lance slipped the hand Keith was holding from the Galra's grip and grabbed it before staring fiercely into Keith's grey eyes. "I am pretty sure that I would never leave you… unless you didn't want me anymore for some odd reason."

" _Odd reason_. You certainly have a high opinion of yourself, don't you?" Keith snorted.

"I'm pretty sure if either of us suddenly lost interest it would be _very_ odd indeed." Lance leaned in closer to the other man.

"I can't argue with that." Keith answered as he also began to close the distance between them.

"Um, excuse me, sirs. I brought the bill?"

Lance and Keith groaned as they pulled away from each other. Keith grabbed the bill and saw that it was a little under $16, he pulled out a twenty and handed it to Kerri along with the receipt. "Keep the change."

Kerri nodded with a polite smile and left them again.

Keith stood and stretched as Lance climbed out of his booth awkwardly. "Alright, let's get going again."

Lance nodded with a happy smile that shone brighter than all of the servers' combined. The two made their way back to the bike. As Keith grabbed the handles for balance to swing his leg over the seat, he felt a tug on his jacket.

He turned and found his face caught between Lance's hands. Lance tilted his face down slightly to look into Keith's eyes. He searched for something that he apparently found because in the next moment Keith felt Lance's lips press against his.

It was tender and warm. Keith smiled as he playfully nibbled Lance's lower lip and caught a taste of the food he'd eaten. Lance whined before he pulled away. The regret on his face could have been from the fact that he'd had to stop or that he'd instigated the kiss.

"You're too salty." He complained.

Laughing Keith pulled Lance's shirt collar to make him bend down a little more before he kissed him soundly on the lips. With that he was satisfied, so he released the other.

Lance straightened and wiped his mouth with a blush. "Sorry."

"It's fine. When we get back to my house I can brush my teeth and we can do this 'mate thing' once and for all."

Lance's body exploded with heat. "Unless you want to go right here and now, keep offers like that to yourself."

"Hmmm, I'll keep that in mind." Keith replied coyly as he finally settled onto his bike. He passed the helmet to Lance, who quickly put it on his head before settling behind the Galra.

If Lance's hands would sometimes suggestively rub at the man in front of him during the rest of their journey home, Keith certainly had no complaints.

They traveled the last leg of their trip to Keith's house without stopping. It was a few hours before Keith spotted the lonely house he'd been living in for a few years now. He increased the speed a bit to reach his destination faster. The earlier promise had left a simmering heat under his skin that was kept alive by Lance's wandering hands.

He was really doing this. Having sex with someone. He was nervous because he'd never done it before.

He pulled the bike into the small shed he'd turned into a garage before he turned off the engine. He dismounted with practiced ease and helped Lance get off of the bike as well. Lance pulled off his helmet and revealed the ruffled mess underneath.

Keith reached up and tangled his hands in the other's hair before he pulled him down for a kiss. Lance let him take charge, still trying to recover from sitting for so long.

Their lips were slicked with spit after a few moments before Lance tried to pull away again. The overpowering saltiness still there, stinging his lips. Keith refused to let go before Lance whimpered in pain.

"Fuck, sorry. Let's go inside so I can get all that shit from earlier out of my mouth." Keith released the other and pulled away to go inside.

They were two steps outside before Lance gave a pained hiss from behind him.

"Lance?" Keith asked, concerned as he turned to face Lance.

The merman was clutching at his eyes, in obvious pain.

Keith felt his heart drop, "Lance!"

"It's fine. Ow! Fuck!" Lance continued to rub at his eyes.

"Apparently not! What's wrong with your eyes?"

Lance squinted at him and Keith could see that his eyes were rapidly growing more bloodshot before Lance hissed in pain and covered his eyes.

At a loss for what to do, Keith dragged Lance inside. "Come on. Let's splash some water in them. Maybe that will help?"

Lance whimpered with a nod as he followed the other blindly inside.

Keith pulled the merman over to the kitchen sink and helped to flush out whatever was irritating Lance's eyes. After a few times, Lance sniffled and tried to open his eyes. He rubbed the irritating droplets away before he seemed fully recovered.

He sighed in relief. "That was weird." He turned to the other. "Now, where were we?"

Keith put a hand over the merman's mouth. "About to discuss what the fuck just happened. Spill, Lance."

"Fine." The merman pouted. "I got a shitload of sand in my eyes… happy?"

"Are you serious?"

"It _hurt_! I couldn't even try to blink it away or anything. It just kept collecting." Lance defended.

Keith sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, he seemed to do that a lot around Lance. "I'm glad you're okay." He looked at Lance seriously, "But please don't scare me like that again."

Lance returned Keith's look, "I won't… sorry."

Keith felt his muscles relax. "It's okay."

There was a long pause.

"So… are we gonna have sex now?"

Keith laughed at the merman's persistence. "Careful, Lance. People might start thinking you're desperate."

Lance closed the distance between them and gripped Keith's waist before he pushed his groin against the other's meaningfully. "I am."

Keith let out a shaky breath before he pushed Lance away. "Alright, fine. Let me brush my teeth. You should too. Oh, shit. You probably don't have a toothbrush." Keith lamented. Seeing Lance's blank stare, he knew he was right. "Okay, you can use mine when I'm done since you don't really care, but we're getting two new ones tomorrow."

"Okay." Lance sounded eager to be done with the tooth brushing and moving on to more pleasurable activities.

Keith hurriedly brushed his teeth and watched as Lance tried to copy his actions when it was his turn.

As soon as Lance spit out the toothpaste, he remarked on its interesting flavor. He reported his gums felt tingly before he turned towards Keith hopefully.

With a nod, Keith turned and made his way back to his bedroom with Lance close at his heels. Shiro would probably pop in a little later. He wasn't sure how ghost travel worked, but apparently it took a lot of energy for him to reappear after long distances.

As soon as his bedroom door shut, Lance was on him. He found himself lying on his bed. Keith let himself spread out and relax as Lance kissed along his jaw.

"Can we take off our clothes now?" Lance asked against his neck and caused him to shiver.

His only answer was to pull off his clothes. Lance smiled as he removed his own as quickly as possible.

When they were both bare, Lance took a moment to appreciate the man under him. He'd noticed last time they'd been intimate, but now he really had the chance to see Keith's skin as it rippled with lithe muscle underneath the smooth, pale surface. Lance knew his own body was muscled as well, but there was an insulating layer of fat that didn't allow for it to show. It made him look soft compared to the hard lines of Keith's muscle.

He silently lamented that Keith wasn't getting the right nutrition and decided that he'd have to fish for the both of them from now on. He didn't want his life partner to wither away right in front of him… his life was so short already.

"See something you like?"

Lance's eyes flicked up to find Keith giving him a playful smirk. Thoughts that Lotor had planted in his mind were forgotten as Lance smiled and quickly pecked Keith on the lips. "Just you."

Keith's cheeks tinted pink as he pulled Lance down on top of him. When their groins slotted together perfectly they both groaned from the friction.

Lance pulled away and Keith felt his patience wearing thin. "What _now_?"

"How do I…? How are we supposed to have sex?" the merman asked as he looked down at both of their erections. Unable to figure out the next step.

Keith felt a flush reach his ears and all the way down his neck. It hadn't occurred to him that Lance didn't have any experience with having sex. _He_ knew the basics at least. "Um. I could just be on top this time? I don't really want to have to…" He couldn't believe the conversation he was having right now, "talk you through everything."

Lance hummed in agreement before he nodded and flipped their positions. His body stretched pliantly, completely submitting to Keith. Blue eyes locked with Keith's grey ones.

With a full body shiver, Keith felt a sense of intoxication at the sense of power he had over the merman. He leaned down and captured the other's lips in a hungry kiss. It was full of teeth and tongues that ended with the both of them gasping for breath.

Keith admired Lance's swollen lips and knew his were the same. Knowing that he needed some kind of lube, he stood and padded over to his dresser. He rooted around until he found some lotion he'd had back when Shiro was alive.

Pushing away the negative thoughts that threatened to intrude on his moment, Keith flipped open the cap. He'd never done this before, but he understood the process from his earlier days full of curious internet searches.

He poured some lotion generously on his fingers before he looked at Lance, "This might sting." He warned before gently nudging his middle finger inside of the merman.

There was a hissed, "Cold." Before Lance settled back. Keith was so focused on his task and watching Lance's face for pain that he forgot about everything else. He noted that it was incredibly tight before he saw Lance shut his eyes in discomfort.

Lance was still trying to get used to the strange sensation. It didn't hurt, it wasn't cold anymore, but he could still feel the foreign object inside him.

Keith immediately stilled his hand, before he leaned down and kissed the other's closed eyelids. He began to give light kisses all around the merman's face in the hopes to comfort him. When their mouths connected again, Keith felt his finger slip further in.

With this newfound discovery, Keith began to split his attention between preparing Lance and comforting him.

There was only the lewd sound of squelching and their desperate gasping in the room. Eventually Keith was able to fit three fingers inside. Lance seemed to just accept the touches at this point. He didn't react like there was incredible pleasure like Keith had read. He tried to remember if he'd read anything to make it better.

Meanwhile, Lance was still deciding how he felt about Keith's actions. It just felt like friction, it could be described as pleasurable if he thought about what Keith was preparing to do to him. He felt a little overwhelmed with the fullness of three fingers inside, not used to having anything shoved up there, but it wasn't bad.

He watched as Keith's brow wrinkled with concern before he seemed to realize something.

Keith crooked his fingers inside and pushed in deeper, it was like he was looking for some-.

There was a sharp intake of breath from Lance. "What are you-"

Keith's fingers brushed against something that made Lance's question be choked off with a groan as he saw stars, Keith stilled his hand once more. "Was that good?"

The merman glared at him panting. "Keith, if you don't hurry up and fuck me I'm going to take over." he threatened after he'd recovered his breath.

Not wasting any time, Keith pulled his fingers out. Lance hissed at the stinging sensation and the sudden loss. Keith mumbled an apology as he applied some more lotion to his erection. His hands were a little shaky as he felt his nervousness increase.

He lined himself up and looked at Lance's face as he pressed inside slowly. He wanted to make sure he wasn't hurting the other or overwhelming him. He wasn't quite sure how fast he was supposed to push in, so he sank in a little at a time. It was slow torture for him, but it would be worth it not to hurt Lance more than necessary.

He felt Lance's calves press against him from behind before they tightened and pushed him fully inside the other. After he'd regained his senses and his thoughts were able to be something other than _heat, good, pressure, friction_ , he had the sense to check on Lance.

Lance was only slightly regretting his choice to speed the other along. He slowly grew accustomed to the feel of the other splitting him open. His legs were shaking where they held Keith captive against him. Not allowing him to move away just yet. He bit his bottom lip to stifle the whimpers that threatened to escape him.

Keith mindlessly rubbed Lance's thighs in soothing circles until the merman nodded for him to continue. He pulled out slowly before pushing back in. He did this a few times before he grew bolder and began to increase the force as he pushed into Lance.

The merman gave a choked cry of, " _There_!" and Keith realized what he'd managed to find. He readjusted so that he could keep hitting that spot deep inside of Lance.

"Oh, fuck." Lance whimpered before he trailed off into meaningless grunts and pants of pleasure.

Keith was no better. He was pretty sure if he allowed himself to make any noise other than the echoes of Lance's grunts and his own labored breathing, it would be nonsensical swearing.

He leaned forward and gave Lance's abused lower lip a few soothing licks. Lance tried to kiss back but his panting hindered him too much to do anything more than react to Keith's kisses with a few half-hearted flicks of his tongue.

Lance had been gripping the bedsheets in order to keep himself from hurting Keith with his deadly claws. But the sensations grew to the point that he felt the desperate need to latch onto something. He scratched at Keith's back as he tried to satisfy his urges. The other hissed and sat up to escape them before he grabbed Lance's hips, his own claws peeking out slightly.

Using the added leverage, Keith was able to increase the power of his thrusts by pulling Lance to him as he pushed in even further.

"Faster." Was the new complaint from below him as Lance struggled to find his release. Keith could feel himself getting close too

He sped up as fast as he dared without immediately shooting his load. It finally occurred to him to grab Lance's erection to help him along. Squeezing gently at the tip, he began to stroke Lance in time with his thrusts.

He was quickly rewarded with Lance's choked cry before the merman came. Keith, who was unprepared for the sudden clenching around him, found his release with a cry of his own. His thrusts became irregular and shallow as he chased the euphoric feeling. When he was finished, he fell on top of Lance in a satisfied heap.

They lay there gasping for breath for a long moment.

"That felt… _very_ nice." Lance commented when he'd recovered. Keith hummed in agreement, feeling more sated than he could ever remember, basking in the afterglow. "I guess it's official. We're life partners now."

Keith gave a sloppy kiss to Lance's chest where his head was resting. "Yeah." He felt a sense of ease fill him at the thought of domestic life with the man under him.

"My school is going to be so shocked when I tell them I bonded with a surface-dweller."

Feeling the euphoria dissipate Keith sat up startled, "School?"

"Oh, I meant family." Lance corrected, remembering the cultural differences between them.

And then Keith's eyes grew wide in realization. _His family_. _The one that lives in the ocean. You know? Because they were merpeople._

The thought that Lance still had a family had completely slipped his mind. He'd gone so long without having one that he hadn't even considered how Lance's family might feel about him shacking up with someone like him.

"Oh, Lance." Keith felt the guilt swell within him.

Sensing where Keith's thoughts had turned, Lance placed a gentle hand on the other's head before pulling him back down on top of him. "It's okay, Keith. I've already come to terms with it. With _this._ " The merman pet Keith's hair. "And I'm happy with you. I feel… like you were something I didn't know I needed until now. Complete… you know?"

Keith felt his heart throb from the intensity of the emotions he was feeling. He couldn't put it to words like Lance so easily could, but he felt the same.

He heard and felt Lance's next words rumble in the chest his ear was pressed against, "I know it hasn't been that long… but I really do love you."

"I believe you, Lance." Keith confessed as he sat up to lock eyes with the merman. He leaned forward and gave the merman a tender kiss. His eyes locked with Lance's blue ones before he whispered against the other's lips, "I love you, too."

Lance smiled toothily before Keith found himself crushed in a hug. Lance made a soft crooning noise of delight and Keith laughed. The Galra patted the other's chest before he tried to sit up. Lance released him with a fond smile.

"Let's get cleaned up."

The shower was nothing that Lance had ever experienced before. Keith turned on the water and stepped in to rinse off before turning off the water. He looked up from where he'd begun scrubbing himself and explained.

"There's a well underground that gives me water but… it doesn't really rain out here enough to give me the luxury of a long shower." Keith then quickly scrubbed at his hair with shampoo.

"Do I have to take a shower like this from now on?" Lance asked.

"No." Keith's reply made Lance let out a sigh of relief. "But if you take long showers all the time then neither of us will be able to shower at all. The water will run out and we won't even be able to flush the toilet."

Lance's eyes widened. "Oh, no. I don't want that."

Keith smirked to himself as he turned on the water, "I'm glad." He stepped under and quickly rinsed off. "I refuse to have sex if I can't shower afterwards."

Lance swore to himself that he would take the quickest, most water efficient showers ever to have existed.

Lance and Keith were sitting on the couch in the living room watching Keith's tiny battery-operated television when Shiro appeared again. He looked incredibly worn out as he landed on the ground, energy too low to even float.

"Hey, Shiro!" Lance greeted as Keith gave a wave of acknowledgement.

Shiro gave a tired smile, "Hey, Lance. Keith." He nodded at the two of them in greeting. "What're you watching?"

"Shiro, you know as well as I do that I only ever get crappy news broadcasts and a documentary channel." Keith griped.

Shiro shrugged, "So, what are watching?"

Keith turned to face Shiro seriously. "We're watching the news."

Shiro looked at the television and witnessed sharks swimming around with a stupidly brave diver in the middle. Obviously, the cameraman was a champion for being underwater as well.

"I see that. I was worried you'd let Lance watch 'Swimming with the Fishes'."

Lance looked at Shiro worriedly. Not understanding the sarcastic exchange, "Would you be mad if I was?"

"I'd be furious." Shiro answered grimly.

"Oh…" Lance looked down while Keith and Shiro waited for what he would say next. Lance looked up and answered nervously, "Well, it's a good thing Keith turned on the news. Right, Keith?"

Keith and Shiro broke down in laughter while Lance looked confused. "Guys?"

Settling down, Keith smiled brightly, "It's nothing, Lance."

Shiro watched them, "You're good for him, Lance." He announced decidedly.

Lance turned to Shiro with a proud smile. Before he leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees. He looked at Shiro seriously, "I promise I will make him happy the rest of his life."

Keith blushed, " _Lance!_ "

"What?" Lance found the blanket that had been draped over the couch blinding him. He scrambled to pull it away and discovered Shiro and Keith locked in a silent conversation.

Their eyebrows moved and their mouths twitched into aborted expressions before Keith confessed, "Lance and I are life partners."

Shiro looked stunned for a moment before he smiled so brightly, light seemed to radiate from him. "I'm happy for you, Keith."

Keith gave a small smile, "Thank you, Shiro."

There was a long moment of silence with the television running quietly in the background. Though, because it was quiet between them the television could clearly be heard, _"Don't go away just yet! We'll be back with more 'Swimming with the Fishes' after our break."_

"Uhhh, I can explain." Lance fidgeted and Shiro and Keith burst into renewed laughter at the merman's expense.


End file.
